


What is L.O.V.E? (Baby Don't Hurt Me)

by TeddyTellsATale



Category: Undertale
Genre: Depression, Evil Chara, F/M, Game Exists, Human Chara - Freeform, Named Reader, Non-Binary Chara, Portal - Freeform, Portal 2 Spoilers, Portals, Post Pacifist Ending, Smut, There is definitely smut, Undertale is Real outside of Barrier, chara posession, eh, happy ending????, i don't know if it will have smut, i'll change the tags when we get there, invisible body, magical manifestation, puns, referenced suicidal ideation, self harm tw, smut on chapter 29, we'll see
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-01
Updated: 2018-01-11
Packaged: 2018-05-30 12:13:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 42
Words: 57,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6423505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeddyTellsATale/pseuds/TeddyTellsATale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You, the reader, in this case Bea, are obsessed with Undertale, and a short skeleton. But once the monsters break the barrier and publicity spreads of their arrival, it's suddenly pertinent to keep the monsters from ever finding out that their lives were a video game. You still play the game avidly, despite the unknown effects; however, when a certain pair of skeletons become your roommates, you discover pretty disturbing things about the game you're playing. However, will you keep playing the game under wraps in hopes Sans will never find out? Or will you be forced to give it up?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Breaking Barriers

“On days like this, kids like you...should be burning in hell.”

With that, you were hit by a barrage of attacks on your computer screen. You don’t know how many times you’d played Undertale just to reset and have all of the fun all over again, but you know you had to have done the true pacifist ending a million times, along with every possible neutral ending, and this was your third no-mercy run. You were sure you were going to beat Sans this time. His attacks flew by you in a flurry, and in your sleep deprived stupor, you beat him. You did it again. Boo-ya. 

\----------------- 

That was over two years ago. You had opened facebook and found a lot of your friends deleting Undertale. It didn’t take long for everyone you followed on tumblr and other social media to delete anything they had posted and made. Your favorite fanfictions withered away, and your favorite authors became less active with being unable to write for fear of being found out by you weren’t sure who.

A lot of Undertale players and Youtubers suddenly found themselves afraid of the repercussions playing the game would have on their careers and they skirted around a subject you weren’t sure of. You tried to tell everyone that it was just a game, but they weren’t as sure as you were. By the hundreds, side blogs and fanfictions disappeared. And that was in the U.S alone.

As the systematic erasure of the game continued and became more relevant, you finally understood what was going on, having finally checked and receiving government emails mandating that your side-blogs and fanfictions be deleted or you’d face a fine. For what? 

Looking at the emails, you had been informed that Mt. Ember, a mountain mere miles away from your house, was actually Mt. Ebott, and that it did in fact house monsters beneath its snowcapped peak. You watched the cell phone recorded videos as a tall and energetic Papyrus (definitely not pixelated, you noted) ran into a military base claiming to be mascot, followed by Undyne, Alphys, Asgore, and eventually Frisk and Toriel; apparently, the government was all over the magic spike from the breaking of the barrier, and they’d anticipated the monster’s arrival once it broke. 

How much does the government actually know about Ebott? You wondered.

However, you didn’t have much time to worry about government intricacies. With monsters actually existing, it became punishable by jail time to post anything about undertale to any media source where monsters could see it.. You were pretty sure it was illegal to have the game or any memorabilia too, but you couldn’t seem to let go of any of it. You just had to hope you were never caught. It was hard enough to delete everything off of the internet, but you couldn’t just pretend Undertale never existed. It changed your life. You wanted to keep playing it. It was one of the only things that relieved stress after a long work day.

And while the monsters looked much more intimidating in person, or, well, on screen, you were disappointed (but also relieved) that they had to be sanctioned off to the mountain for almost a year before filtering into the towns. You had more time to enjoy the game. But less time to enjoy their presence. 

____

Now, the small (but slowly growing) population of monsters had spread out a bit, and you were both excited and terrified to learn that the skeleton brothers had moved into your small town--Grant Lake. You weren’t among the vast majority of friends to have deleted Undertale. You still played it religiously, I mean yeah, for a couple months it was weird to think everything was real. But ultimately, it was just a game based on the monsters right? Toby couldn’t have had any idea any of this stuff was reality, could he? You decided to shrug it off. 

Just a game. 

However, despite that reassurance in your head, you didn’t want Sans of all people to find out you played the game--mostly because you were still spamming no-mercy and dirty-brother-killer endings. You were a masochist. You liked the emotional pain (and maybe you had become a small bit sadist in the process), but it was just a game. 

Just a game.


	2. Negotiation and Accomodation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You spend a little too much time amongst a bunch of noodles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so in case y'all are wondering why there's two chapters with barely anything new (just a change in information and presentation), it's because I realized (with help) that the first chapter was extremely rushed, so I'm breaking it up. <3 Please be patient; i'm still learning.

You didn’t tend to go out much, and when you did it was usually only for food. You had a nice stay at home job-- you worked for a depression crisis hotline and you could easily work from home; you had a home phone for that purpose (so that the batteries on your cell didn’t become an issue for anyone you were talking to). It paid well over minimum wage too, so that was a plus. You were able to live alone and comfortably in a nice three bedroom apartment and keep up your own rent, since your previous roommates decided to move elsewhere. You kept your computer in the corner of your room, hidden by dark blue shower curtains. You also had a couple of blue fur lined hoodies in the closet that reminded you of Sans; you could say you had a crush on the skeleton that had been forming since before the barrier broke. 

However, today was one of those days where it would really be a great idea to go out shopping. When you walked through your room, into the hallway, through the living-room to the front door, you saw a slip of paper that had been shoved through the mail slot. You opened it up and stared at it’s contents. An application for roommates. You were hoping for at least one male roommate so there wouldn’t be so much estrogen in the place if you ended up with one of your friends room-mating, but now you were about to have two. All you needed to do was sign. Your heart flipped in both exhilaration and fear when you read the applicants names; Sans and Papyrus. 

Of course. The one skeleton you wanted to avoid. Well, you’d be lying if you said you didn’t want to get to know the stars of one of your favorite games, several fan-fictions, and a crap ton of fan art. You locked your bedroom door (so that if you met them, they’d never see it; and the multitudes of fan-art on your wall), put on one of your comfy blue hoodies, a pair of black cargo shorts, your white sneakers, and headed out into the nice spring air. It was a little chilly, but your legs would manage. You took the application and signed it with a pen you had on hand and then proceeded in putting it into your mailbox and stretching. You awaited the call to meet them.

After popping every joint and stretching every muscle, you retrieved your bike from the bike-rack and rode to the nearest grocery store, locking up your bike and pulling your wallet from your pocket, searching the store for what you knew you’d need for the house. Food, toiletries, and maybe some clothes, since you were sure you’d gained a couple of pants sizes. 

As you were perusing the different pastas, your phone rang in your back pocket. You fished it out and held it to your ear. 

“Hello?” 

The ringtone, still Megalovania (you’d have to change that) blared in your ear. You’d never actually hit ‘answer’. Sighing with frustration, you tapped the button and held it up again. 

“Hello? This is Bea?” 

A rich baritone voice greeted you in response. 

“hi, i’m Sans...i was uh...looking into the apartment. wanted to join the hive.”

You almost dropped your phone. 

“H-hi, yeah it’s uh available. If you and P-papyrus are available to meet today, you can meet me at Fern Market, I uh, I’m in the pasta aisle?”. You hung up on that note and hoped you didn’t sound too weird. You also hoped you wouldn’t look suspicious just loitering among the noodles. 

After about ten minutes of just staring at macaroni, you heard a loud voice from your left. 

“OH LOOK, A HUMAN IN THE PASTA ISLE. DO YOU THINK THAT’S THEM? THEY SEEM AWFULLY ENGROSSED WITH THE CHEESY ELBOW NOODLES.” 

You facepalmed and looked over your shoulder at Papyrus, Sans following close behind. 

“I uh...have no problem letting you join the aforementioned hive today, but uh, if there’s anything you want for the house, get it now, get it here. Here at Ferns, it’s always the cheapest.”

“ya sound like you used to work here, kid,” Sans said, chuckling. You just shrugged.

You followed Papyrus through the rest of the pasta aisle as he grabbed a box of almost every noodle, and you watched Sans as he bought himself ketchup and hot sauce...and honey? You decided not to question it. They watched you as you grabbed a few pairs of pants, bread, eggs, milk, other groceries (which they pitched in for), and some more towels. 

Finishing your shopping with buying junk food for yourself, you all walked out to the store and converged beside your bike. You gave each of the brothers your phone number and address, and told them to pop by when they were ready; you had to drive to a locksmith and get two extra keys made, since the landlord of the apartments didn’t provide that in the lease. 

You were home for about thirty minutes, finally relaxing enough to watch an episode of your favorite show when suddenly you heard a knock at the front door. 

“Coming!” You called, heading for the door. 

Opening it, you looked up at the grinning face of Papyrus, who looked very real and very scary, you know he’s a skeleton, and he looks the most like a real one. Ironically, his voice sounded almost exactly like all of the voice actors combined for Papyrus, but you couldn’t help but find it unique in its own way, as if it was laced with caffeine. 

With Sans though, not only did he look like a small skeleton but bigger and thicker boned, but his eyes were more than eye-sockets, and the lights on the insides blurred around the edges as if the light source was far back in his skull. Also, no voice actor could compare. His voice was rich and deep, like milky hot chocolate on a cold day, or warm brownies fresh from the oven. You almost fell in love right then and there. 

You smiled and welcomed them in, so they could look at the apartment, if they decided to stay, they could begin tonight, you guessed. I mean, you didn’t care either way. You were just getting lonely and it’d be a nice change. Maybe you’d give papyrus the master bedroom that was empty. 

“THIS IS A MARVELOUS ABODE YOU HAVE HERE, HUMAN!” Papyrus noted, immediately going into the kitchen. You heard him gasp in surprise. 

“YOU NOW HAVE SO MANY DIFFERENT KINDS OF PASTA!” He cried proudly, a hand over his heart in adoration of both his and your selections combined.

Sans chuckled and hung back, looking at you darkly, his eyelights all but faded. You didn’t know why he was regarding you with such curiosity mixed with maliciousness. Was there something up with your soul?

 

Sans walked lazily into the kitchen and peered into the fridge drawer that held the condiments. 

“all this for me, kid? wow you shouldn’t have.” He joked, but as he looked at the variety of pasta he remembered you buying for Papyrus, his look softened you wondered what side of the bed he woke up on. Did they have beds? The rooms still had beds in them that the other roommates didn’t want to take with them they could have those. 

Sans snapped his phalanges in front of your face and you rejoined reality. 

“we’ll take it. we don’t really have much to bring with us other than pap’s stories and our clothes. though i don’t think i’ll have to bring mine.” He drawled jokingly as he eyed your fashion choices. 

You never thought you’d regret getting dressed, but damn this skeleton seemed out on a mission to make you second-guess more than just playing a stupid game. 

Papyrus stepped up behind his brother and beamed. 

“YOU CERTAINLY DON’T SEEM AS LAZY AS MY BROTHER, EVEN IF YOU DRESS LIKE HIM.” 

You choked on your saliva as you held back laughter. 

“WHAT IS YOUR NAME, SANS-LIKE HUMAN? I REGRET NOT ASKING YOU AT THE STORE. I DO NOT WISH TO KEEP REFERRING TO YOU BY HUMAN. IF YOU LIKE, I’LL CALL YOU SANS DEUX”

You couldn’t hold in your laughter this time. It poured from you in waves, slowly becoming less hearty as you ran out of air. 

“I…*huff*... I’m Bea, pronounced like ‘bee’, and before you ask Sans, no I’m not the biggest fan of honey” you glared at Sans “but as you know, since you bought some, I do keep some in the house if you’re that desperate to make jokes.” 

Sans chuckled as he pulled on his sleeves. Looking around the relatively bare living room. 

“So, uh, Bea, what kind of furniture would you like to see in here?” Sans asked, noticing that it wasn’t very homey in the room meant for, well, living. 

You shrugged. 

“A coffee table, I guess. Maybe a bookcase and movie stand next to the TV.” You sighed. It’d be nice to have some extra things, but as of late, affording it had been difficult. 

Sans had a knack for getting straight to the point. 

“How do you want rent to work?” 

You smiled. 

“I can pay the rent on my own, but it’d be a big help if you guys covered food.” You said, hoping he’d accept that. 

He nodded and shoved his hands into his pockets. 

“So, where’s our rooms?” Sans asked, getting straight to another point you didn’t realize you’d missed. 

You led them down the hall, and showed Papyrus the master bedroom it had a bookcase in it, so it seemed fitting. You had the second largest bedroom, and you decided to give sans the smallest room, which wasn’t all too small. Relatively medium sized, you guessed. Either way, Sans nodded and teleported out, but not without telling Papyrus he was gonna get their stuff and come back. 

You could really go for a nap right now.

“Papyrus!” You called “I’m going to take a nap, I worked hard getting ready for you guys…” 

“THANK YOU HU--BEA. IT MEANS A LOT TO US.” You nodded, vaguely wondering where they had lived previously, and shuffled into the living room and laid down on the love-seat. It didn’t take long for you to fall asleep.


	3. Bonding on a Beanbag Chair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You have a long day at work and decide to organize a movie night. You accidentally open up to a skeleton.

You rubbed your eyes groggily and sat up, your back tensing and spasming as you stretched. _Fuck_ that hurt. You rubbed a hand along your spine with frustration as you looked around you in a daze. You were still on the couch. You had a blanket draped over you, now in folds in your lap. Either Papyrus or Sans must have provided it, because it wasn’t one of your own; it was a white comforter with red convertibles drawn into the squares with red and black fabric marker. Definitely Papyrus. Oh yeah! They were probably asleep in their respective rooms.

You neatly folded the blanket and set it on the couch, trudging back to your room. It had to be what, 3:00 in the morning? You unlocked your door with the key you kept around your neck as a pendant, and headed inside. Everything was unchanged, and the soft glow from your computer lit up the room. You chewed mindlessly on your bottom lip as you pondered opening up the game, however, a yawn decided your fate and you retreated beneath the familiar black, blue, and white quilts on your twin sized futon. You could play it another day; maybe when the skeletons weren’t home. 

You eyed the megalovania shirt that hung in your closet longingly, chuckling when you saw how cartoony yet darkly accurate Sans looked.

Guess I’m never wearing that again… you thought, exhaling in frustration as you let your head fall back on your pillow with a soft thud. 

You looked over at your alarm clock and groaned. It’s red numbers gleamed a glistening 4:15am. Of course. You looked back up at the ceiling and then shifted so you were laying on your stomach, your head facing toward your closet. With a huff, you closed your eyes and fell back asleep. 

___

“HUMAN” furious yelling arose, along with a furious knocking at your bedroom door. You groaned. 

“WAKE UP, FOR I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM PREPARING BREAKFAST! ONLY THE FINEST FOR THE FIRST DAY HERE!” 

You groaned and turned over.

“Five more minutes…” you grumbled into your pillow. 

“YOU MUST NOT BE LIKE SANS, HUMAN! YOU HAVE 5 MINUTES TO BE DOWNSTAIRS!” 

“We don’t have stairs!” You called, shoving your pillow over your head.

You groaned. Why did he think you had stairs? And why couldn’t he call you Bea like everyone else? 

That’s when you heard his voice.

“told you to leave her ‘bea’ bro.” 

That’s why. 

You grumbled profanities under your breath to Papyrus as you slipped into a large black T-Shirt. You found a pair of socks in your drawer that had little skulls on them and pulled them on, pulling a pair of black jeans on before walking out the door, locking it behind you. You looked down the hallway and into the kitchen, which was separated by the expanse of the living room, and watched as Papyrus scrambled eggs and made french toast. 

Your stomach grumbled. You couldn’t remember the last time you had french toast… maybe back when you lived with both of your parents, when your dad made it… how old were you then...16? You were 20 now… wow. Four years. You shrugged and smiled wide as you stepped into the living room, taking a huge whiff of egg and pan-fried bread. You spotted Sans on the loveseat, which there was now a coffee table in front of, and sat next to him, putting your feet on the wooden coffee table. Sans looked at you a moment before doing the same, resting his arms behind his head. 

“how much do you know about souls, kid?”

You grinned and looked over at Sans, who was still staring straight ahead. 

“A lot! I know what a few of the colors mean, and some of the acronyms!” You exclaimed, proud of your knowledge. 

Sans glanced over at you, but just as he opened his mouth to speak, Papyrus bounded into the room with plates galore, stacked with french toast that had been sprinkled with powdered sugar and cut into strips, as well as eggs laid out on the side. Little bowls that you forgot you had, stored syrup and butter. It looked delicious. You immediately began to dig in. It tasted better than you could’ve imagined. 

“This is great Papyrus!” You said, trying to skirt around the food in your mouth. 

Papyrus looked extremely proud of himself and proceeded to announce that ‘of course it’s great, and only the best for the wonderful human allowing us to live with them’. 

You grinned and continued to eat in comfortable silence, sneaking pieces of Sans’ food when he wasn’t looking. You excused your behaviour by assuming he wasn’t going to eat it anyway; he was just picking at his food. 

“hey kid, you have your own. be a little more considerate.” He snapped. He then grabbed a fork-full of eggs from your plate, dramatically slow, dipped it in ketchup, and shoved it into his mouth. Were those sharp canines?!

You laughed nervously and did the same...but before you stuck it in your mouth, you made sure to rub the excess ketchup onto Sans’ cheek. The contrast of red to white almost scared you as much as his canines did, but you were too caught up in the levity of the fun you were having. 

His eyes lit up in what you hoped was a challenge. 

“oh buddy, you have no idea what you started.” 

With that, he dumped one of the small bowls of syrup over your head. 

“Eauughh!!! Sans!” 

“BROTHER THAT WAS RUDE!”

“you’re sweeter than honey now!” He chortled, poking you in the stomach with a ketchup laden fork. 

You groaned as syrup dripped from your hair onto your shoulders and down your face and down the front of your shirt. You didn’t think you’d have to take more than one shower today but Sans changed your plans. You just hoped nothing else would happen before you started working on… well, work stuff. 

You groaned as you went to take a shower, calling to the boys as you did so. You heard Papyrus reprimanding Sans for his behavior. You could almost imagine the half-assed shrug that Sans would no doubt give Papyrus. As if on cue, you heard the pun.

“couldn’t help it, bro. they were eatin’ my food. i had to get the message to stick.”

 

Laughing heartily, you stepped into the bathroom, shedding your clothes and stepped into the stream of the shower. The warm water felt nice, as you lathered on soap and shampoo to get the sticky syrupy mess out of your hair, and off of your skin. It took well over ten minutes of a shower you could’ve finished in five, but you couldn’t complain. Long showers were nice. 

Stepping out, you dried yourself and changed back into your pants and socks (that went unnoticed, unfortunately), and into a white T-Shirt in stead. You stepped out and stretched your arms over your head, groaning and walking toward your room. 

“YOU’RE NOT GOING BACK TO BED, ARE YOU HUMAN?” Papyrus asked from his post in the kitchen, where he was washing dishes. His eyes looked dejected as if he expected you to never return from the abyss of your bed.

You shook your head.

“I work from home, and my office is in my room. I get calls from people who are really sad, and I help them feel better” you explained, looking at the time; 9am. “i get off at 6, Papyrus, so if you want to do something this evening, let me know when I get off!” You smiled. 

Papyrus nodded and went back to doing...well, whatever he was doing. You hoped Sans had work; you supposed he did, but you weren’t going to go into his room and check. You’d read enough fanfiction to know that it never ends well. Needless to say, you weren’t surprised when you walked out of your room after a particularly rough phone call with a young girl, about 15, to find the house empty. It didn’t make you feel any better about the situation, though. Rough days were always better with company. You saw a note taped to the fridge and went over to read it. 

“HUMAN! SANS WENT TO WORK AT HIS SHIFT AT THE HOT DOG STAND IN THE PARK, AND I WENT TO START MY SHIFT AT MUFFET’S BAKERY! SEE YOU WHEN WE GET HOME!” -NYEH HEH HEH, PAPYRUS.

You chuckled at the note and then realized that you were already really comfortable with the skeleton brothers. You chalked it up to getting along well, save for with Sans, who, for some reason, seemed to be reserved towards you. You hoped you’d get along tonight. Instead of having Papyrus make plans, you decided to have a movie night. You had a couple of Mettaton classics (what Undertale buff wouldn’t?), and a lot of Disney movies, along with an assortment of others. You kind of wanted them to watch Milo and Otis. You texted Sans the plans and hoped he’d fill Papyrus in. You felt your phone buzz twice in your pocket.

[Sans]: ok.

[Papyrus]: NYEH HEH! I CAN’T WAIT FOR THE FUN ANIMAL MOVIE. SEE YOU TONIGHT!

You smiled and tucked your cell phone into your pocket again.

 

You took approximately three more long calls that afternoon, along with a few short and easy ones. All combined, they left you completely drained, so you dragged an old beanbag chair into the living room and plopped into it, but not before sticking “The Little Mermaid” into the DVD Player and switching it on. Sinking into the chair, you almost fell asleep, but the opening of the apartment door jolted you awake. As if sensing your discomfort, the enterer kept his voice down. 

“hey kid, did you want popcorn or anything? i got some, cos paps likes it.” Sans held up a box of microwavable popcorn and you smiled lopsidedly, nodding in affirmation. 

“uh, you okay pal?” he asked, sitting on the side of the loveseat closest to you. 

“Long work day today, Sans.” you sniffed. “All i hope is that i at least got through to one of the longer calls.” 

He looked at curiously. Had you ever explained what you did? 

“I work for a depression and suicide hotline,” you conceded. “I try to save lives.”

Sans regarded you with what looked like incredulity and surprise, but it softened into sympathy as he patted your shoulder awkwardly. 

“then why is yo-- nevermind, you know what? how bout i make some popcorn? we can watch this weird mermaid movie ‘til paps gets home”. 

You nodded and curled in on yourself, allowing Sans to retrieve a blanket and put it over you. It was the white comforter with racecars again. You snuggled into it and curled into a ball in your beanbag. 

You were vaguely aware of the comforting hand rubbing your shoulder as you fell into a soft slumber and the hum of Sans’ voice.

“where did the LV come from…?”


	4. Dunking a DVD Player

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been a long day and only the games can take the stress away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The nasty plagiarism that happened has been resolved! They vanished! Yay!

“bea, wake up.” 

You cracked open your eyes to see Sans holding a bag of microwavable popcorn and a glass of water. You cringed. You almost never drank water and opted for milk or juice instead. It was better than nothing, though; your long day kept your mind distracted from the simple task of hydrating yourself. 

You figured you didn’t sleep for very long, and looking at the TV, you found yourself correct; it was only about ten minutes past the point in the movie where you remembered dozing off. You looked over at Sans, who was pouring the popcorn into a large bowl in the center of the coffee table. You’d have to ask Sans where he and Papyrus got the table from. 

You reached for the bowl and ate a piece of popcorn. 

“What kind is this?” You asked, licking your lips at the salty sweet flavor. 

“kettle corn.” Sans said curtly, shrugging as he tossed a handful into his gaping maw. 

He handed you the glass of water and you drank it delightedly; anything to ease the dryness in your mouth. You took a look at the glass and noted that it wasn’t one of your own; it had a crystalline skull engraved on the bottom. 

Cool.

You set the glass down and leaned back in the bean bag chair as Sans seemed enthralled by The Little Mermaid. You could laugh at the irony; a big bad skeleton liking a cute kids movie. As the movie got to the part where Ursula sings “Poor Unfortunate Souls”, Papyrus opened the door and closed it behind him lightly, huffing as he stepped into the living-room. 

“You okay Papyrus?” You inquired, seeing how exhausted he looked. 

“YOU KNOW” he winced at his own volume and lowered it, “I am so glad you requested a movie night, Bea, I have been exhausted of my energy. The Great Papyrus needs a rest!” He exclaimed, falling back next to Sans on the loveseat. 

Sans looked extremely worried at the state of his brother. You could only assume that Papyrus didn’t get tired very often. 

“what happened at work, bro?” 

“A couple of human patrons were bothering Muffet,” Papyrus began, “but I, The Great Papyrus, handled it well with my ingenuity and charm!” 

You laughed as Papyrus’ mood slowly began to rise again, and you heard him talk about how the patrons tried to spray pesticide at Muffet’s spiders and at Muffet, only to be thwarted by The Great Papyrus’ quick thinking and pressing of the emergency call button; in short, the men were arrested and Papyrus got sent home early.

Sans patted his brother’s back. 

“you’re so cool, bro” 

“ONLY THE COOLEST, SANS!” Papyrus conceded. 

You glanced fondly at the two and moved to the DVD player, but just as you reached to take the movie out, it shorted out and spat out the DVD, now cracked in half. You gasped as sparks flew from it. 

“What the hell? This is not a normal malfunction!” You cried. 

You unplugged it and threw it into the electronic recycling bin you had by the door. It didn’t have much in it, but with the addition of the DVD player, you supposed it was time to take all this stuff to Best Buy or some other computer place that would find use for the crap. 

“Get dunked on” you whispered, staring at the DVD player as it sat in the bin.

Papyrus looked absolutely dejected. You groaned and thumped your head back onto the wall next to the door and slid down it. This day couldn’t get any worse, but you didn’t want to test fate by saying it out loud. You looked pleadingly at Papyrus, and he seemed to have an idea, if the widening of his eyes meant anything. 

“I KNOW, HUMAN!” Papyrus beamed, “WE CAN PLAY A GAME!” 

Your mouth turned up in excitement. Jumping up from your sitting position, you ran into your room and grabbed two board games from your closet, closing your door behind you and running out into the living-room. In your arms was Scrabble and Candyland. 

You placed the games on the coffee table and bit your lip, silently asking for either Sans or Papyrus to choose between the two. You stared hard at the Candyland box, blindly hoping someone would pick it. 

“THE ONE WITH THE SUGARY SWEETS LOOKS FUN!” Papyrus said, examining the box and the rules. 

“sure bro.” Sans grunted, giving in to his brother’s whims. 

______

You should’ve shuffled the paper-like cards of the game more, because Papyrus kept drawing double colors. 

“come on pap, this isn’t fair” Sans grumbled, drawing from the deck and getting sent all the way back to the Peppermint Forest from just a few squares behind Papyrus, who was almost at the end of the game. You drew your card and just got a single yellow, putting you in the middle of the board. You groaned as Papyrus reached for his card, landing upon the Candy Kingdom. You groaned. He never even landed on one of the dastardly licorice spaces. 

Simultaneously, Sans and you groaned; you picked up your piece and put it in the box, proceeding to gather up the cards as you cleaned up the game, eating little bits of popcorn from the large bowl as you cleaned. Sans was looking at the rules for Scrabble, and you smirked as you tapped the box, causing him to flinch. 

“Will I have to _spell_ out the instructions for you?” You teased, putting the box for Candyland underneath the coffee table for storage. 

Papyrus groaned and put his head in his hands. 

“i dunno, i’m at a loss for _words_ ” he retaliated, putting the box down and looking toward you with a shit eating grin on his face. 

Papyrus stood up. 

“YOU TWO CAN PLAY THIS ON YOUR OWN!” He shouted, stomping to his room and closing the door. 

Sans burst into laughter, and you dissolved in a fit of giggles. You listened to Sans’ deep laugh that seemed to start at his stomach and bellow out in waves. You couldn’t help but smile while listening to it. 

Oh goddamn it you were developing a real crush on the real Sans. Great.

You coughed into your elbow and opened the box, shaking the bag of letters as Sans set up the board. 

You stretched your arms, set the bag down beside the board and leaned forward on the table, looking up at Sans who was still seated on the couch. 

“Game on, bone boy.” 

You tossed a piece of popcorn into your mouth.

______

You had hit a stalemate. The popcorn bowl was empty and the entire board was covered with words; quite a few of which you presumed Sans had made up. He claimed they were “monster words” and you didn’t want to get on his bad side, but he was definitely winning. One of the most recent words on the board was “AMALGAMATE”, which was ten letters, and you knew that players were only allowed seven tiles. 

“You dirty cheater” you muttered, pointing at the word, “that’s ten tiles and you’re only allowed seven”. 

He locked his eye lights with you and chuckled. 

“welp, ya caught me, guess i can come clean about all those fake words too.”

“I KNEW IT!” You cried, slamming your hands down on the table. You flipped the board, causing tiles to fly everywhere. 

Sans looked at you skeptically. 

“no need to _flip out_ , kid” he admonished playfully, “i thought you’d get _board_ if I didn’t spice it up”. 

You groaned as you began picking up tiles, meticulously checking to see if you had all of them. 

“come on kiddo, i’m just _playin’_ with ya.” 

SMACK

You hit your head on the coffee table as you went to sit up quickly to stare at Sans. Now you just whimpered pitifully while rubbing the back of your head. 

“wow, you really got a- _head_ of yourself.” 

You groaned as you cleaned up the game and put it beneath the table with the other game. 

“I’m going to bed.” You grumbled.

“wait!” Sans called. 

You turned.

“good night” he mumbled. 

“Goodnight, Sans.”

You walked into your room and closed the door, looking over at your computer. 

Time for another game.


	5. Long Night and Tea Time!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You FIGHT back tears, and spend time with papyrus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's kind of short, but eyyyyyyy, i think it's worth it.

You locked your door as you stepped into your room, and passed through your black curtains that surrounded the glow of your computer. You gazed at the screen-saver of Papyrus and Sans holding hands with Frisk, and watched as it shifted to the other pictures you had on your computer; mostly fan-art: Sans holding baby Papyrus, Papyrus holding Sans once he was taller; there were actual photo’s too-- a camera photo of all the monsters at a press release, and a photo you took of a Vulkin hugging a human. 

Sighing, you clicked on the “Undertale” icon and waited for it to load. You didn’t bother to put your headphones on and resorted to just turning the volume off. Smiling as you pressed ‘z’ on continue, you found your video game rendition of Frisk at the first save point in Snowdin. Walking to the save point, your mouth turned down in a guilty grimace as you read the words.

**Determination.**

As you read those words, you groaned. Now you had to walk throughout the rest of Snowdin, running into Papyrus and Sans, with the annoying text of ‘but nobody came’ popping up. Great. You tiredly walked through to the next room and blanched as you saw Papyrus and Sans standing across from your little Frisk. 

You took a deep breath. 

_‘Just a game, Bea’_ you thought to yourself. 

You didn’t skip through the dialogue this time, and it resulted in personal dejection every time your character would walk through a puzzle. You didn’t think it’d be this hard. You didn’t think knowing Sans and Papyrus personally would make this hurt so bad. 

You walked into Snowdin and had to stop to wipe your tears. You took a break and stepped out of your room, locking it behind you and stepping into the living room to make a glass of tea. You noticed wetness on your cheeks when you went to rub the tiredness from your eyes.

When had you started crying?

You waited for the water to boil in the kettle and stepped into the living-room, resigning yourself to scroll through Tumblr on your phone. 

You could hear Sans’ voice in your head. 

“you’re gonna have a bad time.”

You gulped and placed your head in your hands and sobbed. 

How could you think of hurting them? It was just a game right?

It was just a fucking game!

You groaned and plugged your headphones into your phone and leaned back on the loveseat, putting the music on shuffle. 

Bonetrousle. 

Come on! You couldn’t escape the heartache! Instead you decided to inflict your anger inward onto yourself by playing Megalovania on repeat. You popped your neck and heard the water boil, and so you walked into the kitchen to pour it into a glass with two sugars and some citrus black tea. Sipping it, you listened to Megalovania blare in your ears and you clenched your free hand into a fist. 

After about an hour of this nonsense, you walked back into your room, but not before looking at Sans’ door. The weird flames from the game didn’t do justice to the odd colours appearing through the crack in the bottom of the door. It wasn’t like flames. It looked more like rave lights, like a party was going on in there; you knew better though. It was probably just magic stuff. You wondered if Sans kept the weird machine from Snowdin in there. The closet might’ve been just big enough. 

Wiping your gross crying face with your sleeve, you walked back into your room and locked the door again behind you. You hated having to do this, but unless you wanted to answer a fuck ton of questions, you’d continue. You dragged yourself back to your computer. Determined to finish what you started. 

___

You kept your fingers glued to the arrow keys in Snowdin, you kept walking through until you ran into Papyrus, and it took everything in you to hit the fight button; that spare option suddenly seemed so worth it. Even so, you let it miss a few times. Finally, with all of the courage you could muster, you finally hit Papyrus with your Tough Glove. As his pixelated body turned to dust, you felt yourself let out a sob you didn’t know you were holding in. 

Ten minutes later, you heard a sickening gasp and cry.

“AGH! SAAANS! IT’S HAPPENING AGAIN!” Papyrus cried in pain. 

“shit shit shit shit shit!” You heard Sans yelling. 

You felt so guilty, but there wasn’t a reason to, right? Correlation does not mean causation. You shut your eyes tight as you heard Sans rush into Papyrus’s room, shutting the door and locking it. 

You couldn’t hear the conversation so you decided to go to sleep. It was hard, and the muffled voices from across the hall didn’t do much to lull you. But eventually, sleep came. 

________

You expected to be woken up by Papyrus, so you were shocked when you looked at your alarm and it was 10 minutes till 9:00; you only had 40 minutes to get ready and get breakfast and start the day. As you walked into the living-room, you were shocked to see Papyrus wrapped in the car blanket while sitting on the couch. He was holding a glass you could only assume was either Sea Tea or Golden Flower Tea, and you felt a nagging pain in your chest. 

“Hey Papyrus, don’t you have work today?”

“I called in.” He said simply. 

Shit. 

“Why?” 

“I, The Great Papyrus, seem to have gotten sick. However, I’m sure I will get better soon. Sans says it was probably the stress from yesterday.”

You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding. You didn’t cause this. It’s just a game.

“I hope so! The world needs you!” You said, plastering a smile onto your face. 

Those words seemed to lift Papyrus’s spirits. 

“You’re right, Bea” he pointed toward the entertainment center and you spotted a new DVD player, “can we watch that animal movie now?” 

You nodded and grabbed Milo and Otis from the movie stand. 

“Of course Papyrus. Anything to soothe your magnificent soul.” You grinned. 

Papyrus hugged you as you sat back onto the loveseat beside him. 

“Thank you, Bea! You are a truly great human!” 

You couldn’t help the guilty pang in your chest. Maybe you should call in today too and spend the day with Papyrus. 

You called your boss on your cell phone. 

“Hey Boss, I know I never do this, but it’s an emergency. I don’t think I’m well focused enough to deal with callers today.”

Your boss’s voice chimed through to your ears in a nasally drawl. 

“You’ll have to work a double tomorrow, you know.”

“Yes boss.”

“Feel better soon.”

“Thanks Boss.”

He hung up and you leaned back. 

“You didn’t have to do that for me, Human!” 

You shrugged and sat back. 

“A movie day with a sick room-mate is more rewarding than work any day!” You sighed, looking over at him. 

Papyrus beamed, and glanced back before immediately turning his attention to the movie, curling into his blankets and wiggling in satisfaction. 

' _So cute_ ' you thought. 

Maybe today wasn’t going to be so bad.


	6. The PAWsibilities!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You and Sans give Papyrus a present.

Youthfulness. You wanted to be a kid again. You couldn’t help thinking this as the adventures of a small orange cat and a curious pug unfolded on the screen before you. Maybe you’d consider getting a kitten or a puppy. They were so innocent. Watching them grow up in the wilderness like that, it hurt your heart and the cute voice acting that the narrator did was just to die for. 

You found yourself sniffling when the kittens and puppies were born; you debated covering Papyrus’s eyes, but considering you could handle it when you were a kid, you assumed he could. This is the surface; you can’t shelter him forever. 

You were right. He wasn’t affected. Just fascinated and enthralled by the cute little puppies and the adorable kittens. 

As the credits began scrolling on the screen, you smiled at Papyrus, who was asking incessantly for a cat. You would take him to go get one, but you’d have to talk to Sans.  
Because you wouldn’t have to pay for groceries any more, you definitely had enough money for a pet deposit. You excused yourself to the bathroom and called Sans. 

“hey kiddo, what’s up?” 

“When do you get off of work, Sans?” You hid the frustration in your voice. Kiddo. Pfft. 

“eh, ten minutes, why?”

“I watched _Milo and Otis_ with Papyrus, I’m assuming you bought the new DVD player, and he really wants a kitten now.” 

“what are ya sayin, kiddo?”

“I’m not a kid” you rolled your eyes, “I’m saying, let’s go to the pet store when you get off of work and get Papyrus a kitten. I have enough money for a pet deposit, and I can take out of my savings for the cat.”

“i’ll cover half the cat and half the deposit. you don’t need to be spendin’ that much for my bro”.

“It’s no problem Sans; I can afford it.”

“alright, kid, if you insist. i hope it’s paw-sible for you to meet me in front of the complex, we’ll take paps car.” 

“Okay!” You squealed. You spoke your goodbyes and hung up and you quickly got dressed in shorts and a hoodie and called out to Papyrus as you walked out the door. 

“Sans and I are gonna go shopping! You stay here and get well okay! You need to be at your best!” 

“OF COURSE!” His voice was back to normal at least. “I’M FEELING BETTER ALREADY”. 

You grinned as you walked out the door, and saw Sans leaning against Papyrus’s car, a cherry red convertible, in the parking lot below you. You walked down the stairs and laughed as you realized You and Sans were wearing the same style of clothes again. He chuckled as he opened the door for you and you scooted in and wiggled in the seat. The car was more comfortable than you expected; it was well worn in (you guessed from being used), and it felt like you were made for the passenger seat.  
___

Sans laughed as he watched your closed eyes and head leaned back onto the seat, your hair splaying out on the head-rest slightly. He closed your door, and looked over at you. He noticed you had slightly more EXP than last time, but he could’ve just read it wrong when you met. It was only by like a one hundredth of an EXP anyways; killing a large amount of bugs could do that (he had to find that out the hard way when a giant hornets nest was made in the corner of his and Pap’s old apartment and he panicked, accidentally blasting it to smithereens. Oops. 0 EXP to .01 EXP in less than 5 seconds).

He immediately looked away when you turned to him. 

“Don’t judge me!” You laughed, probably talking about your comfortability in the seat. 

Sans, however, cursed himself under his breath for being so insensitive. He could forgive a lifetime of beehive incidents or self defense crimes; that’s what he thought your LOVE came from. You were probably protecting yourself from either people or vicious insects. He could respect that. Everyone was flawed in some way. Maybe you just hated scary bugs. Maybe you found a hornets nest too! That’d be ironic, given your name. He glanced at you and found you dozing off in the passenger seat. You looked kind of cute when you were sleepy; your mouth half open, hair in your eyes; it was adorable. 

‘ _snap out of it sans. just drive._ ’

____

You cracked your eyes open when Sans started shaking your shoulder. You smiled and looked out the side of the car at the pet shop sign. You got out of the car excitedly (AKA, jumping over the closed door like a maniac), and ran inside. Your feet carried you directly toward the kittens, and Sans followed close behind. 

“What color, Sans?!” You asked, looking at all of the kittens. You looked at all of the gray ones, and black ones, the calicos and tabbies; then you spotted a siamese cat with long-ish fur and bright blue eyes. 

“Oh my god…” You sighed, staring at the kitten in awe. You wanted this one; and it would look so cute in a red collar! You looked over at Sans and he smiled. 

“the eyes remind me of blue attacks” Sans said. 

You bit your lip; 

‘ _Okay, Bea, respond like you don’t know what he’s talking about…_ ’ you reminded yourself.

“What are blue attacks?” You asked. 

Sans looked over at you. 

“just magic stuff.” he explained (kind of), shrugging. 

You grumbled your irritations under your breath. He wasn't wrong... 

“i think this one is purr-fect,” Sans said, petting the little kitten’s nose through the cage, “we gonna name it or we gonna let pap name it?” 

“Pap...” You said, testing the waters with the nickname. Sans just looked at you fondly when you said it. 

Phew.

You decided to stop dwelling on it by grabbing a nearby worker and pulling them over. They corrected you on the breed; it was called a himalayan; similar color to siamese cats, but longer fur. Fluffier. It didn't change your opinion at all. 

“We want this one!” You exclaimed excitedly. 

Sans hung back and grinned at your enthusiasm, wandering through the aisles to grab cat food, cat supplies, litter boxes, flea brushes, etcetera. He grabbed another worker to help him, paying for it on his own. You watched him and rolled your eyes. Of course he wouldn't let you do _everything_.

It wasn’t long before you two met at the exit, the adorable kitten in a cat carrier. 

Sans teleported the stuff to Pap’s room when you weren’t looking, and you waited for him to come back, because you knew what he’d done. However, you pretended to panic when he finally popped back in. 

“WHAT WAS THAT? DON'T SCARE ME!” You admonished, unable to fake panic in your voice; this was because no matter how much knowledge you had of Sans' abilities, it's not natural for someone to show up right beside you--your panic was real. 

He shrugged and used the excuse of going to the bathroom, but you knew better and just glared in his direction as you both went back out to the car. You allowed him to be a gentleman again, and held the carrier with the cat in your lap; he seemed to believe your schtick. Good. Maybe you were a better actor than you originally thought.  
____

As you both walked into the house, Papyrus looked over from the love-seat.

“SANS! HUMAN. YOU ONLY HAVE ONE ITEM! HOW COULD YOU BE SO LAZY!” 

“two actually bro.” 

You handed the carrier to Papyrus and he opened it, squealing, which was more like a loud, high pitched NYEEEEEHHHHH!!!!!

He held the kitten up to his chest and pet it gently; you noticed Papyrus was wearing light blue and red flannel, which accented the kittens blue eyes and red bandana (that you had insisted on it wearing), perfectly. 

“What’re you going to name it Pap?” You asked, inadvertently using the nickname that Sans used back in the pet store. 

Papyrus looked over at you in admiration, and then looked at the red bandana around the kitten’s neck. 

“What kind of cat is it?” Papyrus whispered, in awe of the kitten. 

“It’s a kind of siamese; they call it a himalayan; so its basically a siamese with long fur. The pet store told me it had periwinkle parents, which means very affectionate parents, so she’ll probably grow up to act like a fuzzy pushover.”

Papyrus smirked. 

“Like Asgore.” He chuckled, thinking of the monster king; then he looked over at you and Sans. 

“I SHALL NAME IT BOSS MONSTER!” Papyrus said, with an air of finality. 

“how about boss for short, bro?” 

“DEAL!” Papyrus cried, cuddling the kitten close. 

You and Sans sat on the armrests on either side of the love seat and watched Papyrus play with his new friend and comfort companion.

You exhaled a nervous laugh. Perhaps this would make up for the sins crawling on your back.


	7. Unnecessary Nightmares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You have a couple of bad dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> another short one, I'm sorry. It's just that the information for this chapter was limited and I didn't want to force any unnecessary details. Much love <3

You made the decision to take the fan-art off of your walls and hide your Undertale merch; you didn’t want to worry about your door being locked. You put everything in a locked black oak chest in your closet, and kept the key around your neck along with your house and room key. Closing your bedroom door behind you, you tiptoed into the living-room where Papyrus had fallen asleep with the kitten. 

He set up all of the supplies; the litterbox was in his room, and the food and water dish was close to the kitchen so it could be easily refillable. You peeked over at the loveseat. Papyrus had taken over, his bony appendages flung every which way; one arm was above him, dangling off the armrest, the other arm held was off of the front of the loveseat. One leg was over the other armrest, and his other leg was dangling off of the front of the loveseat also. You giggled when you saw the kitten curled up on Papyrus’s forehead. 

You spotted your beanbag chair up against the wall next to the loveseat and decided to leave it there. Tiptoeing into the kitchen, you grabbed a bag of potato chips and snuck back into your room, sitting on your bed and opening the bag. You didn’t even eat two chips before dozing off.  
____

_’Hello?’ You called, your voice lost in the blizzard outside of Snowdin. In front of you was the very real Papyrus, his arms outstretched in confusion._

_“WHY HUMAN?” He called, “WHY DID YOU COMMIT SUCH A VIOLENCE?”_

_It was more of a statement then a question. You watched his bones disintegrate to dust before your eyes. The dust blew into your face and you hacked and coughed. Looking up, you saw Sans._

_“ **you dirty fucking b r o t h e r k i l l e r.** "_

_He was holding his hand out toward you. You reach out for it and he sends bones rushing at you._

_____

“HOLY SHIT” you screamed upon waking up, then breaking down into gross sobs. 

The next thing you know, you feel bony arms wrap around you. Opening your eyes, you come face to face with Papyrus. He must’ve left the kitten in the living-room. You hugged him back. 

“WAS IT A NIGHTMARE, HUMAN?” He asked, wiping tears from your eyes. You nodded, looking down. 

He lowered his voice. 

“I’ll get Sans…he’s better about these things than I am, although I am great. He used to help Frisk with their nightmares” He said, patting your head. 

You kind of dreaded that, because you didn’t want to talk about it; if you did, that would open up a can of worms you weren’t planning on opening. You broke down into fresh sobs, staring at the door as tears ran down your cheeks, your breathing coming in heavy pants. 

Sans came in rubbed his eyes. You didn’t see Papyrus come in behind him, so you guessed he’d leave you to it. You visibly flinched at his darkened form. 

“hey bea, may i turn the light on?” 

You nodded.

As the light flickered on, it softened Sans’ features. He sat on the edge of the bed. 

“you don’t have to talk about it, but if it helps, you can.”

You shook your head. 

“so how can i help, bea?”

You shrugged and climbed underneath your covers, curling up and facing away from Sans. 

“closing yourself off isn’t gonna help, kiddo.” 

You grunted. He could buzz off. 

“want me to sit here until you fall back asleep?” 

You shook your head violently. That would do the opposite of help. 

“what do i do to help you. nightmares are hell and i know that there has to be _something_." 

“...tea.” You whispered hoarsely, your breathing ragged. 

Sans nodded. 

“paps is on that already. he should be back in soon. hey are those potato chips?”

You nodded and handed him the bag. He munched on a couple and looked over at you as you watched him eat. 

“awe come on, can’t stop staring at this handsome _spud_?” 

You giggled, laughing despite how shitty you felt. 

“Are you really going to _hash_ these out, Sans?” You asked, your voice cracking on almost every word. 

He chuckled and repositioned himself so he was leaning against the headboard beside you. He ran a hand through your hair as a show of comfort. 

“BEA, I HAVE PREPARED ONLY THE BEST TEA TO HELP EASE YOU. GOLDEN FLOWER TEA.” Papyrus called before stepping into the room. He had one of your old trays out with three mugs of tea on it. You all sat criss cross on the bed in order to drink it, the tray resting in between all of you. 

You took a sip and felt your raw throat instantly start to feel better--you were also instantly becoming more relaxed as you drank more. You commended Papyrus’s skills with brewing; it wasn’t too hot or cold. It was a comfortable warmth that went down smoothly, leaving you feeling very satisfied. 

Once everyone finished their tea, you ushered them out of the room so you could try to go back to sleep; looking at the clock, you noted it was only 3:00am. You yawned and stretched your arms, legs, and back, laying back down. Your head hit the pillow and you were out like a light.  
____

_You found yourself in your apartment. As you walked through it you found a pile of dust on the love-seat, and Boss was crying out in fear of you. Sans stepped out of the hallway and shot bone after bone at you. You jumped, narrowly avoiding them._

_“looks like you have practice.” He said menacingly._

_The scene changes._

_You’re at Fern Market again, perusing the pasta, when you’re choked by a whirl of dust flying into your face, a red scarf covering your eyes. As you peel the scarf away, you see blood on your hands, a knife in your right. Down the grocery aisle is Sans._

_“ **You should be b u r n i n g i n h e l l**." _

_The scene changes again.  
You’re standing outside of the apartment and as you look down at your body, you realize you’re covered in dust. _

_You will yourself to wake up._  
_____

You wake up covered in sweat and you realize you’ve been crying again. The clock reads 7am and you groan as you walk out of your room with the half eaten bag of potato chips. You sit on your bean bag chair and finish them off, throwing the bag in the garbage. As you walk back into your room, you lock the door behind you again. 

You start your computer and open Undertale. 

Time to numb the pain, since the hard part is out of the way. 

You pushed the arrow keys and meandered into Waterfall. 

That fish won’t know what hit her.


	8. Something's Fishy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sick Fish!

_That fish won’t know what hit her._  
___

Undyne didn’t know what hit her. 

“NYAGH! Hey Alphys!” Undyne called with frustration, stepping out of the shower into their living space of their studio apartment (apart from the bathroom), running a towel through her wet hair and holding another towel to cover herself, her hand placed over her chest. Her scales still glistened from the warm water. 

Alphys looked over from where she was sitting on their futon, her brows rising in confusion from over her glasses. Her yellow scales crinkled near Alphys’s snout as she looked at Undyne, now ignoring a recent episode of one of the many animes that the scaly couple frequently watched. Her eyes widened at the pained look on Undyne’s face, erasing the wrinkles from her nose. 

“Y-yeah, Undyne? What’s g-going on?” 

Undyne groaned and clutched her chest harder.

“Take a look at my soul real quick. Somethin’s up.” 

Alphys walked tentatively over to Undyne and pulled out the soul that she was beginning to grow pretty familiar with. 

“W-w-well that’s not good.”

“NAGHH! What’s going on, Alph!”

“Your soul Undyne...i-it...it has another very s-small chip in it.”

“UGHH! Again!?”  
___

You dodged Undyne’s attacks on the screen with skill; it was more like memorization. As you landed the last blow that beat the fish monster on your computer, you stretched in satisfaction. Skipping through the text, you rushed to the next save point; after saving, you closed the game and turned off your monitor. The whole process of grinding and defeating Undyne had only taken about twenty to thirty minutes, so you celebrated by walking out of your room for a second to grab a cup of tea before you started your double shift. 

Just a game. 

As you watched the water boil, you felt a hand on your shoulder. 

“HUMAN,” Papyrus said, “I AM GOING TO GO TO UNDYNES. I JUST GOT A CALL AND SHE GOT SICK TOO.”

An odd look crossed his face when he said the word “sick”. You were starting to realize this might be more than coincidence… but you shoved the thought from your mind before it could take root. 

“Be careful Pap,” you said, giving him a goodbye hug; it was very bony, “don’t want you to miss much more work.”

“I SHALL USE THE MOST CARE POSSIBLE!” he assured you as he let go of you and headed out the door, twirling his keys off of one of his digits and heading out the door. 

You let out a breath and stirred sugar into your tea, just as you heard the first call ring through to your home phone. Mug in hand, you rushed into your room to pick it up. 

“Hey! This is Bea Rynne Lóchrainn, with Tranquility Depression Hotline. What’s your name?” 

“My name is Theo” a young male voice responded. 

“Hi Theo, what’s going on?”

“Well it all began with…..”

And so your first call ensued.

____

“Nagh!! Papyrus! What do you mean, this happened to you?”

Sans sat on the other side of the room, in a swivel chair in front of Alphys’s computer. 

Alphys leaned against the back of it, arms on the back of the chair, rocking slightly as Papyrus and Undyne shared their concerns. 

Sans lifted to fingers to pinch the bone between his eyes. This wasn’t the first time this has happened. It happened a couple of times when they were still sanctioned off in Ebott, but he had hoped that once they left the mountain it would quit, giving the souls an ample amount of time to repair themselves.

The one thing that bugged Sans the most, was that it happened in the same order as the killings from the bad resets. However, Frisk was also at a loss for what was going on. They knew that they’d feel themselves become more drained when this would happen, but their soul was fine from what they let on. According to Toriel, Frisk was fine. Toriel was always the first one to be effected from the sickness, but this had happened to her a little over a month ago; why was everyone else catching it so much later. Sans looked up at Alphys and mouthed 'Muffet'. They'd have to keep an eye on her, since she usually got 'sick' shortly after Undyne the last couple of times.

Sans didn’t want to think about what...what _anomaly_ was draining his friends’ and family’s soul, but once he found out, oh that anomaly was going to have **a b a d t i m e**.  
_______

Between calls, you had reconnected the home phone in the kitchen so that you could sit on the counter and talk to your...not clients, not exactly patients either, but your callers. You heard a familiar voice on the line; it was the 15 year old girl from the other day. 

“Bea?” The girl asked.

“The Queen!” You joked, kicking your legs on the counter; you were so happy to hear this girls voice. 

“I wanted to thank you for listening to me… You saved my life” *click*. 

You held your hand to your chest and took a deep breath. 

Wow, it was so rewarding and relieving to hear that. It was almost 9pm, and that was the last call of your shift. Hanging the phone up and pushing it toward the corner of two adjoined counters, you hopped off of the counter and sat on the loveseat, stretching and turning on the TV. You had limited cable, so you flipped through what channels you had before settling for an old episode of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. 

It didn’t even get through the title sequence before Sans walked in the door. 

“Where’s Pap?” You asked, pausing the TV (heck yeah DVR). 

“he’s stayin’ at undynes” he said lazily, that grin still plastered onto his face. 

You frowned. 

“are they okay?” You asked, worried.

“they will be.” Sans said simply, his malleable bone above his eyes drawing together in confusion as he looked at you. 

You felt like you were being judged. 

“As long as they’re okay.” You said, unpausing the TV as Sans trudged back to his own room. 

__

Sans slammed the door behind him. This couldn’t be a coincidence. Your EXP had risen by another .01, giving .03 EXP until your EXP was high enough for your LV to rise. He didn’t understand how your EXP had risen, but the only pieces he could put together in his head was the fact that 

It rose when Papyrus got sick.  
It rose when Undyne got sick.

He could tell you weren’t absorbing the chips of their soul, just gaining EXP. However, it wasn’t enough to worry him too much, it could still just be a coincidence. Although he was confused, you seemed too nice to be doing any of this, unless there was something you were doing on accident. 

But what?

Sans rubbed his hand over his face and groaned. 

It was too late in the night to think about it, so he just got beneath his blankets and stared at the ceiling. Maybe he should get glow in the dark stars and put them up there. Turning, he looked out the open window instead, at the dark sky and the horizon. 

He couldn’t lose his brother up here on the surface.

He couldn’t imagine living on the surface without Papyrus. 

Whatever, and whoever was doing this was going to pay. 

Unless it was you. 

He didn’t know what he’d do if it was you.


	9. Wrapped Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ahuhuhuhuhuhuhu!

One too many episodes of F.R.I.E.N.D.S got you passed out on the loveseat again. You wished you could go one week without passing out in the living-room; but it’s been a couple of years and you still crashed on that love-seat at _least_ once a week.

You rubbed your eyes and looked around the room. You didn’t really feel like moving any of your limbs, but you had a sneaking suspicion that your bed would be more comfortable than old couch cushions. You raised your arms above your head and stretched, effectively popping the vertebrae in your mid back. You groaned softly in satisfaction, and froze when you looked up. 

“Sans?” You asked, curling into yourself slightly.

He just stood there in the corner by the TV. Looking at you. 

“Sans.” 

He walked forward into the glow of the Netflix ‘are you still watching’ screen. He looked so tired, and there were tear stains on his cheeks. He held two glasses. 

“How long were you standing there, waiting for me to wake up?” You asked, a tremble to your voice.

“n-not long.” He stuttered. _Wait._ Sans stuttered!?

You stood up and ran over to him, taking the glasses and setting them on the coffee table. You put your hands on his shoulders. 

“Sans, are you okay? You could’ve woken me up!”

He shrugged. 

“No pun?”

He shrugged. 

“Not gonna say anything, are you.”

He shrugged. 

You handed him his glass of tea and motioned him to the couch to sit with you.

He complied.

You wrapped an arm around him. As if it was some sort of switch, he set his tea down and leaned into you.

He cried.  
___

You don’t know how long you held Sans, letting him release the pent up tears he’d been trying to hide. When he finally leaned back away from you and sipped his tea, it was almost 8am, and you had no idea when you had woke up to see him. 

You rubbed his back and stood up. 

“I’m going to make breakfast. Want anything?” You inquired, resting a hand on his shoulder. 

He shook his head and stood up after you. 

“nah, i’m good. too eggs-hausted to eat though” he said, causing you both to chuckle. 

“I’m glad you’re feeling better.” you said, waving a spatula at him as you grabbed eggs from the fridge.

He laughed and closed the fridge for you, smirking.  
“didn’t want to act too fridge-id.” 

You giggled, cracking three egg into a bowl and mixing them, adding salt and pepper and a dash of milk, then pouring the concoction into a skillet. 

 

Taking out two plates, you looked over your shoulder at Sans, who was eyeing you with curiosity. You dished out scrambled eggs onto his plate, slathering them with ketchup; he grinned at this antic. Then you took yours and his plate and walked into the living room. 

“Eat!” You commanded. 

He sighed, his smile meeting his eyes for once, and dug in. 

You watched him eat out of the corner of your eye, not only to see how it worked, but also to admire the way his jaw moved, and the way his eyes would glaze over in ecstasy every time he tasted the ketchup.

You chuckled. 

He was so adorable. 

You excused yourself to your room, saying you wanted to take a nap. He nodded and waved you off.  
___

You walked pixelated Frisk into Alphys’s lab, thankful that you hadn’t met these monsters yet, or it’d be harder on you. It was already hard enough to kill some of the Vulkins, because you were close friends with a particular Vulkin that you talked to regularly at the local café. You’d have to talk to her again when you went back; to atone for this mass murder.

You traversed all of Hotland, whittling numbers down until you got the ‘Determination’ message at the save point before Muffet’s parlor. You took a deep breath and stepped into that room. 

It was agonizingly slow; you hated going through the webbing. You decided to entertain Muffet by fighting her for a little bit. You always enjoyed the Muffet fight anyways. As the spider gave Muffet the transcript so that she’d spare you, you clicked on ‘FIGHT’, and with a sharp exhale, you pressed ‘z’. 

You were vaguely aware of your bedroom door clicking shut.  
___

Sans listened outside your door for a long time. All he could hear was beeps and slow distorted music, and the occasional whooshing sound. Probably a video game. What he didn’t expect to see when he opened the door quietly was a pixelated Frisk walking through a pixelated Muffet’s parlor, running into a pixelated muffet (with very good battle music), watching you fight her until she decided to spare you, and then pressing FIGHT, and the image of Muffet disintegrating into dust. He backed out through the door and closed it carefully. 

What the fuck was that.

Just then, his phone rang. 

“what’s up alphys?”

“Y-you were right! It’s M-muffet!”

Sans cursed under his breath and teleported out of the apartment. 

He’d talk to you about this later.


	10. Careful Consideration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Sans makes a visit to a...multi-faceted friend...You prove to him just how hot you are.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh, feels nice not to be too angsty~  
> PS: Simaetha is a purple and gold jumping spider that I thought would suit muffet well <3

“muffet!” Sans called, teleporting into Muffet’s bakery, which was closed. He ended up finding her sitting on the large and elegant purple couch in her connected parlor. She looked dreadful. She had all of her eyes closed except for the bigger two, and all of her arms were wrapped around her torso as if protecting herself. When he popped in, Muffet jumped, her six arms tightening around her.

“you okay, _simaetha_?” Sans joked, using her chosen last name as a pun. He resigned himself to the side of the parlor as not to seem intimidating. 

“I’m fine, dearie.” Muffet responded, moving an arm to wave him away, “just feeling under the weather again.”

“how’s your soul?” Sans asked, curiosity peaked. 

“I’m sure it will be fine, just need to eat and get back on my feet, ahuhuhu~” 

Sans chuckled, scratching his head. 

“want me to go get something from grillby’s for ya, or are you good on your own?”

Muffet looked over at Sans, all five of her gleaming eyes open. 

“Oh would you, dearie? It’s been so long since I’ve had something of his, with running this place, and all.” She had all of six her arms folded in front of her, hands clasped in a cute beg. 

Sans chuckled and gave a lazy thumbs up, popping out of the room in a flash. 

Muffet sat in silence waiting. She knew that if getting sick like this, and the soul chipping continued without giving any of the monsters enough time to recoup, that it wouldn’t end well. She hoped that whatever was causing this would be solved.

A couple of her darling spiders hovered nearby, presenting her with flowers to help her feel better. She pushed one of them lightly on their web string, causing them to swing. She listened to their giggles a bit until Sans came back with food; a spider donut and a hot cup of hot chocolate, even a large box of fries labelled ‘Cupcake’, who was leaning against Muffet’s side on the couch. He resorted to sniffing and using a leg to try to pull at the box. Muffet would have to thank Grillby later for using one of her recipes and for providing food for her pet as well. She said thank you to Sans as he disappeared, and sent Grillby a text saying she’d pay him back. 

**[Grillby]** : It’s on the house.

Muffet grinned and tossed her phone back onto the couch. More money for her, she thought, a light, airy laugh emanating from her lungs.  
___

While Sans was glad he could do something for Muffet, he was still mulling over what he’d seen in Bea’s room. He knew it had characters with similar likeness to Frisk and Muffet, but he couldn’t just assume that’s what it was; it could’ve been a videogame with a spider character. He’d seen spider halloween costumes up here, it wasn’t too farfetched of an idea. 

He decided not to confront you about it and to resort to watching for more evidence. Only then, if anything substantial came up, would he try to talk it out with you. 

But as far as he knew, maybe you were just playing a videogame. 

The parlor’s likeness to Muffet’s in the underground couldn’t mean anything; the same striped shirt didn’t mean anything. Muffet’s likeness to, well, Muffet, couldn’t mean anything. 

Sans shook his head. It had to mean something! 

Still, he knew pressing matters now would probably just cause you to become defensive. So he’d wait it out. If he saw more characters than just Muffet die, he’d approach you. The fight Muffet gave in the game looked extremely tough, and he couldn’t blame you for reacting with a sense of vengeance. 

Still, that didn’t explain the soul sucking that the game was doing.

Maybe it wasn’t just a game.

It couldn’t be just a game. 

He wasn’t going to place accusations until he knew for sure. 

He'd continue to be considerate unless you gave him more of a reason not to. 

That’s what being a judge was about.  
__

You stepped out the door into the warm spring air and started walking down the steps to the parking lot of your apartment. You were so ready for the day! You were going to bike to the café and talk to that Vulkin! 

Eying the bike rack, you noted that your bike was missing. 

“Oh come on!” You kicked the bike rack and fell to your knees.

“you okay there kid” came a familiar voice from behind you. 

“Someone stole my bike!” You yelled turning around. His circles of light became pinpricks as he saw the look of anger on your face. They widened as your face shifted from angry to upset to distraught. 

“I can’t go anywhere without that thing; I don’t like walking and biking is the next best because there’s no way I can afford a car.” You looked over where the two empty parking spaces were for your apartment, because Papyrus was gone. You held the broken chain that used to keep your bike secure in your hand, staring at the broken lock as well. 

“jeez kid, you look _two tired_ for this, wanna go back inside?” 

You shook your head. 

“I wanted to go to Coffee Hut to see one of my friends...but I can’t now…” you groaned, putting your head on your knees as you leaned against the hot metal bar of the bike rack. You let it sear the skin between your shoulder blades that was uncovered by your cute white tank top, and didn’t say anything. What good would it do?

“kid i don’t think hot metal on skin is healthy” Sans said, reaching down for your hand. 

You eyed it for a second, looking for a prank, and then took it, carefully noting the small gaps between his metacarpals that were fused together, reminding you that he wasn't human skeleton; just a skeletal monster. Helping you up, he turned you around and you heard him hiss air through his teeth. 

“ouch, that’s a mighty big blister.” He said. 

You groaned. He let go of your hand and studied your back.

“lets get you inside and fix that thing up; didn’t need to do this to prove to me that you’re hot”

The words were out before he could stop them and your face flushed a deep red. 

Sans coughed as you turned to face him. 

“You’ll do anything for a pun, huh bonehead?” You said, deciding to play it off. 

“guess so” he said, shrugging his shoulders and literally vanishing before your eyes. 

Well that was slightly disappointing.

You rolled your eyes as you saw him watch you from the window. You looked up at him and wiggled your fingers, mouthing ‘magic’. He laughed and nodded, waving you up. Wordlessly and feeling the blister on your back more than ever, you walked up the stairs and back into the house. 

So much for chatting with your friend.  
___

You lay on your stomach on the loveseat as Sans hovered his hands over the burn. He had talked you into being a guinea pig for his healing magic. You watched as green magic licked your skin and sparked against his hands. It came from his fused palms in pulses, seeping up through the metacarpals in places where it would hit parts of your skin that were already healed. He talked to you as he worked. 

“I was never really into healing magic in the underground,” he began, “the woshuas and vegetoids knew it, and papyrus was learning it from them and some of the other monsters, but i never really had a use for it.

when we got to the surface, it seemed more prevalent, considering there were a lot more reasons someone could get hurt, especially papyrus; he’s so innocent.”

You heard Sans trying to keep his voice steady, and it almost broke your heart. 

“so i asked toriel and papyrus to teach me. i’m still learning, but i like to think i am doing pretty good.” 

After a couple of minutes, Sans looked exhausted, and he had to quit. He had reduced your blister into a pole shaped sunburn, which you could manage much better. Sitting up, you allowed him to sit beside you.

He shook his head and sat back on the loveseat, sighing.

“sorry i couldn’t do better,” he groaned in exhaustion, “too tired”. 

Just as you were about to ask if he wanted anything, he was out like a light. 

““Thanks Sans,” you said, sitting up to keep the burn from rubbing against the cushions, “it means alot.”

You thought you saw his smile lift a little more.


	11. Sans' Soft Side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans shows a side of himself that you can't help but fall for.

You both fell asleep side by side on the couch, which you later regretted, because you woke up with the armrest digging into your spine; which meant rubbing against your sunburn. 

“Ow!” You hissed, sitting up straight and going into the medicine cabinet to find some aloe. 

“you okay?” You heard from the couch.

“Yeah, fell asleep and woke up to the armrest in my back.” You explained, rubbing a glob of aloe vera on your back. 

“what is that blue glop?” Sans asked, his voice gradually coming closer to you. 

You explained the usage of Aloe and that most things with Aloe were green, which you thought was cool, because healing magic was green. You grunted in complaint when your arm couldn’t reach all the way to the rest of the sunburn. 

“here let me get that.” He gooped up the blue globule of aloe vera into his hand and rubbed it into your back. You heard him laugh as the substance oozed lightly through his metacarpals and onto the back of his hand. 

“this feels really weird against my bones” he mused, small delighted chuckles escaping his mouth. 

You leaned into his touch; the cool feeling of aloe vera from his smooth phalanges and metacarpals seeping into your skin. He pulled his hand back, causing you to trip backwards, falling right into him. 

As he held you up and stood you back onto your feet, you looked into the lights of his eyes. 

“Looks like I’m falling for you” you joked, standing up and brushing your shirt off. 

Sans’s cheekbones lit up in a light blue and he looked away from you. 

“paps will be home soon” Sans said, looking back over at you. 

“Guess I oughtta make some spaghetti, then!” Your voice sang, rising at the end in excitement. 

Sans walked into the kitchen behind you. 

“What’re you doin’? You don’t seem the type to help.” You chuckled, looking over your shoulder as you bent to get a large pan from beneath the counter. 

You watched his eyes glance down before shooting back up to meet your own. 

“uh, just wanna watch.” 

You laughed and filled the pan half full of water, set it on the stove, and turned the stove to high. As you waited for it to boil, you took the hamburger meat you put in the fridge to thaw, and began to brown it. As it simmered and seared, you poured in two small cans of tomato sauce and handed the can to Sans, telling him to pour water into it. He complied, and you poured it into the meat and tomato sauce, mixing it carefully with a dash of garlic powder and italian herbs, and a pinch of salt. 

“smells good,” Sans commented, “i’m sure pap will approve.”

You grinned and turned to him as you poked at the meat with your spatula, leaning your head on his shoulder. This was nice. As the smell of spaghetti wafted into your nose, you froze up, tears forming in of your eyes, threatening to spill onto your cheeks. You stopped pushing around the hamburger and Sans noticed you were distressed. 

Your mind flooded you with images and memories of you and your first love: baking, making spaghetti, his laugh as he flicked spaghetti sauce onto your nose, the way he’d smile when he ate something you worked together on, the way his black hoodies always smelled like pistachios (his favorite snack), the way he’d hold you when you were upset, the nights he’d spend slurping noodles and poking you with dry noodles, and the thing that probably urged this; the interested spark in his eyes as he watched you cook. 

Before you knew it, you weren’t able to cook anymore because you were on the ground sobbing; Sans finished cooking the meal, pouring the meaty sauce into the pan with the noodles; he drained them, and then leaned down in front of you. Your head was tucked into your knees as you tried to hide your flushed face and tears from him. He tapped your chin with one of his bony fingers and you looked up. 

Sans eyes bored deep into yours, asking for an answer you didn’t know if you were ready to give. You weighed the pros and cons of opening up to Sans, and decided that there was no harm in letting him in. 

“Neiko…” You whispered, your voice catching as you spoke the name you hadn’t dared utter in almost a year. 

“who’s neiko?” Sans queried, his eyes scanning your face; your nose was starting to run. 

You started to tell Sans everything; from the way you and Neiko would sing together, to cooking together. You told Sans how Neiko would make spaghetti with you. You told Sans how Neiko would take you fishing and also how he’d take you out to dinner almost every Sunday. You cried as you buried your face into Sans’ shoulder, letting out the raw emotion that you didn’t let control you for a long time. 

You hadn’t seen Neiko in a while, considering you became a recluse once he got a new girlfriend. You didn’t even give yourself any time to move on; you just pretended he didn’t exist. It was easier that way. You didn’t know how many unanswered messages you had from him; besides, eventually he just stopped sending them. 

“shhh. i’m here, Bea...shhh.”

He rubbed circles into your mid back with his hand, being wary of the sunburn. His other hand held yours as you squeezed it every time you felt yourself on the verge of tears. 

Sans pushed you back to hold you by the shoulders, and looked into your eyes. 

“did i do something?” His voice was steady, hoping he didn’t cross any lines with you. 

You almost teared up at the idea that Sans felt guilty for your breakdown. 

“No,” you assured him, “It was the smell of my home-cooked spaghetti--it reminded me of him.”

Sans nodded and pulled you into a hug again. 

You felt yourself sink into his arms.

Sans, despite however Undertale made you feel, Sans made you feel safe. 

You felt secure.

You hadn’t let yourself feel this way for a long time.   
___

“I’M HOME!” The door slammed open, to reveal a very chipper and energetic Papyrus, followed by Undyne and Alphys. Your face blanched at seeing Undyne. She looked so much scarier in person. You were still sitting on the floor in the kitchen, Sans standing next to the pot, making sure the meal stayed warm. 

“Hi Papyrus! Hi Undyne!” You called, waving them over as you stood up, “I made spaghetti for you. I hope it’s enough for all five of us…” you counted, cringing at the idea you may not have made enough spaghetti. 

“IT SMELLS DELICIOUS!” Papyrus assured you. 

You sighed in relief; even if everyone got small portions, at least they’d enjoy it.

As Papyrus divied up the portions, you walked into the hall and pulled out a circular fold up table from the hall closet. You set it up in the middle of the living room with some fold up chairs so everyone had a place to sit around it. 

Sans sat between you and Papyrus while Undyne sat semi on the other side. Undyne and Papyrus talked about training and cooking, while you overheard Sans and Alphys talking about science. You were slightly surprised. However, you also felt very out of place. You nudged his foot with yours, and he crossed his calf over yours. It was like your legs were holding hands. 

It made you feel a little better, same as when he glanced back at you and shot you a soft happy look. You grinned back at him. 

__

Sans couldn't believe he was letting himself get this attached to you, but when you nudged his leg with yours, he felt the need to find a way to make you feel included. He resorted to pressing the back of his leg to your shins as a sign of affection. 

He didn't want to admit it, but you were growing on him a lot. You opened up to him about a lot of things, even an ex lover. He felt the need to hold you close and keep that from ever happening again. 

He didn't even want to think of what it would mean if you were the reason behind everyone's sickness; he just wanted to enjoy your presence. He wanted to be around you. To be there for you. To protect you. 

He didn't want to admit that he liked you. 

A lot.

___

You ate in relative silence, only joining discussions when asked, and you felt Sans push back on your leg with his as a nudge, and you’d do it back. It was like a silent way of being there for eachother, where nobody could notice. As Undyne and Alphys left, you felt more guilty for dusting “The True Heroine” in the game; you quickly quenched that thought though, resorting to lay your head in your hand as Papyrus took the bowls and plates from the table into the kitchen.

“I’ll do the dishes tomorrow, Pap.” you said, yawning. 

“SURE THING! LET ME KNOW IF YOU NEED MY MARVELOUS ASSISTANCE!” 

You looked at Pap incredulously. 

“How long did you get off of work Papyrus?” Your voice rose in shock.

“A WEEK!” 

Your face gave away your surprise. Papyrus would be home a lot. Oh boy. Less Undertale time, more bonding time. 

“Awesome.” You stated simply, nudging Sans’s leg again as he nudged back. You could’ve sworn you saw Papyrus smirk as he placed the dishes in the sink.

You let your eyes close as your chin rested in the palm of your hand. 

You could get used to this.


	12. Snakes Aren't Noodles, Papyrus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bea takes Papy to the zoo.

The next day, after helping Papyrus fold the table up and put it away, you had gone to bed. Straight to bed. Now, you and Papyrus had a full day planned while San’s went to work. As you started cooking breakfast, Papyrus walked up behind you and hugged you. You laughed, shoving him backwards playfully. 

“What’s on the agenda today, Pap?” You inquired, flipping a pancake from the pan to a plate, slathering it in syrup and handing it to Papyrus. He leaned his tall bony frame against the counter. You wondered if all skeletons were attractive; you liked Sans, but you had to admit--Papyrus wasn’t ugly. 

He tugged at the cuffs of his orange and blue flannel, and then rolled them up to his elbows. You watched him as he got the look in his eye that shouted ‘idea!’. 

“I WAS THINKING THAT WE COULD GO TO THE ZOO!” Papyrus said, his face lighting up as he suggested it, literal sparkles seeming to form around his face. You couldn’t say no. 

“Alright Paps! To the zoo!” You started, yelling after Papyrus as he went to exit the kitchen--“After breakfast!!!” 

You flipped the last two pancakes onto your own plate and covered them in butter and syrup, and then sat on the counter to eat them, careful not to get any syrup on your shirt. That carefulness was in vain however, when you heard a loud ‘pop’, followed by a short skeleton. Your flinch sent your fork launching bits of syrup onto your chest, dripping down your shirt. He looked slightly dazed as the smell of syrup hit him. 

He looked over at you, took your fork, and took a bite of your pancake, and popped back out. 

“That was incredibly rude!” You called after him, despite the fact he couldn’t hear you. 

Papyrus had already finished his food and glowered at the spot where Sans had been. 

“HE’S SO LAZY. HE SHOULD MAKE HIS OWN FOOD!” Papyrus complained, throwing his arms up in exasperation. 

You chuckled and grabbed another fork to finish your pancakes, seeing as Sans had left with your own fork. You finished them off quickly and grabbed Papyrus’s keys from where they were hanging up by the door. You looked at the tall skeleton with pleading eyes. 

“Can I drive?!” You begged, the keys hanging off of your pinky as you folded your hands below your chin. 

Papyrus laughed aloud.

“OF COURSE, HUMAN! IT WOULD BE MY PLEASURE TO LET YOU DRIVE TO THE ZOO! YOU KNOW WHERE IT IS, AFTER ALL.” 

You slapped your face with your palm; you were the only one in this household who knew where the zoo was at; of course.

You followed Papyrus out the door and almost ran and dived into the driver's seat (after opening the door for Papyrus of course). You turned the keys in the ignition and heard the motor purr as the car came to life. You couldn’t hide your glee. Papyrus looked over to you and his eyes searched your face. 

“IF I HAD KNOWN HOW MUCH YOU LIKED MY CAR, I’D LET YOU DRIVE IT MORE!” 

You giggled as you caressed the steering wheel, looking out the windshield. You put the car in reverse and backed out, and proceeded to drive to the zoo. 

__

“LOOK AT ALL OF THE ANIMALS, BEA!!!” Papyrus yelled, nearly dragging you through admission before you had the chance to pay. 

You chuckled as he made his way over to a small glass enclosure with snakes in it. His eyes widened as he looked over at you. 

“THEY LOOK LIKE NOODLES. CAN I COOK WITH THEM?” 

“No!!” You cried, “They’re living creatures!”

You pointed at a snake that was moving around and looking up at Papyrus with glossy eyes. 

Papyrus covered his mouth with his hands. 

“I’m sorry little noodle friend!” He whispered. 

You chuckled as he pet the glass, bones clinking softly against the clear barrier. He was enraptured by the little slithering creatures in the enclosure. As he backed away from the enclosure, his eyes locked onto a sign you hadn’t remembered seeing. 

“DOES THAT SAY PETTING ZOO?” His voice was so excited, you thought it’d break. 

“Yeah, wanna pet some animals?” 

“OF COURSE!!” He ran to the sign over a bamboo doorway with vigor. 

You followed swiftly behind, but not without taking notice of the person about your size behind the Nice Cream cart, selling some of the delicious treats to a couple of children. You narrowed your eyes, but it was too late, you were already being dragged into the petting zoo. 

You almost lost it when Papyrus saw the baby goats. He kept calling them Asgore clones or Toriel clones, and you couldn’t help but laugh at his antics of petting the small goats, the deer, the sheep, the llamas, and the chickens, and ponies. You yourself tried to resign yourself to the guinea pigs and potbelly pigs; however, you had to leave your post by the cute creatures to peel Papyrus, no matter how light he was, off of a miniature pony that he was adamant about ‘riding into battle’. The workers only laughed at the antics, because they noted how the pony was having no trouble with the skeleton on it’s back. All you could do was imagine Sans riding on one of the miniature ponies. 

As you looked over your shoulder, one hand on Papyrus’s shoulder, you spotted the Nice Cream cart again, and this time you were sure the seller was Sans (or at least, you had a feeling). 

“I’m gonna get some Nice Cream.” You said, curious to try the new flavors advertised on the board above the cart. 

As you walked up to the cart, you smirked. 

“Hey there, bucko. Those new flavors seem pretty _cool_.” 

His hearty deep laugh bellowed from the cart as he raised his red beanie up some more to properly look at you, his Nice Cream selling uniform looking a bit dorky, seeing as it wasn’t Sans’ signature blue color. You thought the suspenders looked a bit off too. Sans just didn’t look good in warm colors, you decided. 

He laughed and leaned on the cart, facing you. You had to suppress a giggle. He looked so weird in that uniform! He looked at your getup too; black shorts and a blue T-shirt with blue sleeves. He snickered. 

“what flavor do you want, sans b?” He chuckled. 

You furrowed your brows in confusion. 

“Sans B?” You asked, leaning on your hand as your elbow pressed into the cart. 

“i’m sans a, and since you seem to dress in _my_ colors, i’ll just call ya sans b.”

You snorted. 

“Oh hell no!” 

“sorry, too hot in hell, the nice cream would melt. now whaddya want?” 

You looked up at the sign at the new flavors: cotton candy, chocolate chip mint, cookies and cream, and coffee. 

You hadn’t had coffee flavored ice cream in a long time, so you figured you’d give it a shot. 

As you ordered, you saw Sans look over your shoulder at Papyrus, who was being sat down by an employee and handed a snow leopard cub. How adorable!

Sans handed you a Nice Cream and waved you off. 

“Don’t I have to pay for it?” You asked with incredulity. 

“it’s on the house, sans b.” He smirked, “go pet the cute mini predator.” 

You laughed and waved at him with your free hand, taking a lick of the Nice Cream. As you did so, you felt Sans’ voice deep in your soul.

“you look nice today, bea.”

It made your soul flutter and a blush rose to your face. You were pretty sure your face was still burning as you made your way over to Papyrus. 

“Look, Human Bea! The large kitten likes me!” Papyrus whispered, taking your hand so you could pet the creature while Papyrus bottle fed it. You almost died of cuteness overload. 

You and Papyrus pet the cub for a while longer, but soon its almost closing time, and you still hadn’t gotten to show Papyrus all of the animals. It could wait another day. You were walking toward the front of the park when you heard a pop, and Sans was suddenly falling into step beside you.

You held a hand to your chest. “Don’t do that!”

He just shrugged; you noticed he was wearing his signature hoodie and a pair of black sweatpants. 

“i’m off for the evening, and was wondering if i could hitch a ride home.” 

Both you and Papyrus groaned, probably wondering the same thing; why not just teleport home, Sans?!

But you both obliged anyways. 

It was hilarious to see Sans’s face when you got into the driver’s seat. 

___

As Papyrus opened the door for you, you tiredly trudged into your room, Sans at your heels. You had told him you wanted to talk to him on the ride home, and he obliged. You stood in the middle of the room, by the foot of the bed, in silence for a bit.

“So--” “hey--”

You both laughed. Sans motioned for you to go first. 

“I like you.” You stated simply. 

Sans nodded as if it was a fact. 

“i like you too.” He replied with a blue blush tinting his cheekbones. 

It was comfortably silent for a second. 

“dinner tomorrow night?” 

“Definitely.”

He hugged you and then walked out of the room, but not without casting an interested glance at your computer. 

Your heart jumped into your throat. 

You knew there was no way he could know.

You decided not to worry about and to go to sleep instead. 

He was probably intrigued by the screensaver of Sans and baby Papyrus. 

Wait.


	13. What are We?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is it guys. This is the big one. Enjoy >:)

Sans had to admit. That was some pretty neat drawing of him and Paps you did. He didn’t think you could do digital art that well; he hadn’t remembered seeing a tablet, but that meant nothing. Either way, you did a good job. He’d have to hit you up for some actual art; god you were so talented. What couldn’t you do? He decided not to bring it up unless you asked, but wow he wanted to treat you to dinner even more now. 

You stepped into the living-room where Sans was waiting and his eyes widened in surprise, his jaw slackening, his mind racing as he took you in. You were still in casual clothes; a black skirt with pastel yellow leggings, and a bright blue T-Shirt that seemed to fit comfortably. It suited you, and once again, he chuckled inwardly at the fact that it matched his colors. 

He marveled as he looked into your eyes. You were so breathtaking.  
___

Stepping out into the living-room didn’t prepare you at all for how Sans looked. You marveled as he wasn’t in shorts or his hoodie, but instead donning black jeans, white sneakers, a white T-shirt, and a dark blue button up. He looked casual, but also very date-worthy. You couldn’t imagine him dressing so fashionable just to go to Grillby’s with you, but it _was_ a date. 

He stepped forward and laced his phalanges with yours, metacarpals against palm. It felt right, and not as hard and rough as you’d expected from his skeletal hands. As the door opened and the light breeze hit you, you could smell his bone cologne wafting in your direction. It reminded you of old books and tea. You decided you’d have to borrow some, but now, now it was time to walk to Grillby’s. 

He looked over at you, and you looked evenly at him, a hand caressing his bony face with your free hand, and then started to walk while Papyrus shouted his goodbyes from the door.  
__

You didn’t know what to expect when walking into Grillby’s, which took a surprisingly short amount of time. Maybe you expected Sans to take you up to the bar instead of leading you to a booth. Maybe you expected to see less humans, but there were other humans scattered about the bar, chatting happily with monsters. The warmth of the building and the cozy atmosphere led you to sit back in your seat.

You spied Grillby looking over from the bar. You were a little surprised at first upon seeing the man of fire, but it wasn’t much. Undertale had taught you well what to expect; still, seeing it in person was more daunting than seeing pixelated fire, that and he really _was_ attractive. 

Sans caught you staring and tapped you hand, which was folded with his right in front of you. You peeled your gaze away and looked at the person you were here with. The person you were here for. Sans. 

“he’s pretty hot” Sans joked, smiling. 

“Not as hot as you, bonehead,” you teased, “metaphorically.”

Sans blushed and tilted his head, closing his eyes and smiling. You giggled. Had he been watching anime with Alphys? Because this was literally too cute. As you held Sans’ hand, he opened his eyes and looked into yours, his gaze becoming focused and concerned as he felt your grip tighten considerably. There was a voice asking what you wanted for drinks, and you couldn’t bring yourself to look at the waiter. 

Since when had _he_ been working at Grillby’s? 

You peeled your eyes from Sans to look at the tall, thick man, probably around 20 years old, now that you think about it. Only a year or so younger than you. His thick curly hair was still cute atop his head, and his thick glasses hid the beauty of his green and gold eyes, his beard and mustache neatly trimmed as he donned a black dress shirt and slacks; the same as the uniform he’d wear for the other jobs he had. He was smiling, but you could tell it was forced as his green eyes bored into your own blue ones. 

“Hi! I’m Neiko, and I’ll be your server this evening. Anything I can get you?”

You were half tempted to bolt out of the bar. 

“I’ll have a soda, thanks. You know what I like.” You said, venom seeping through your words. 

“i’ll take the usual, kid” Sans said. 

Sans had met Neiko before? 

You lay your head in your arms, pulling away from Sans.

Why were you angry? Why were you lashing out at him? Neiko had done nothing wrong. He tried to stay friends. It was _you_ who had abandoned _him_. Not the other way around. 

You’d have to man up. You could do this. 

Despite knowing he would return, you watched him walk away, a form you’d never get used to seeing, letting fresh tears slip down your cheeks. 

How come he was able to break you like this? You were supposed to be enjoying yourself!

_You were supposed to be here with Sans._

Speaking of whom, he was looking at you, concern filling his face. 

“You knew Neiko…?” You asked, your voice quiet.

“yeah, i met him when i first started going to grillby’s up on the surface, which took a while considering i promised grillby i’d pay for stuff up here. on the surface i mean.”

You nodded. 

“i had no idea you used to be a thing though, until you told me ‘bout the guy.” 

Your heart dropped. So Neiko never talked about you. You could just chalk it up to him doing his job, but honestly, you didn’t know if Sans started going here while you and Neiko were dating or not. So who knows. 

Sans took your hand and pulled it to rest on the middle of the table. 

“i’m here for ya, bea.” 

You nodded and squeezed his hand. 

“Thank you Sans. Now let’s do our best to enjoy the evening.  
___

He thought back to dinner that night. He was glad he decided to take you to Grillby’s. You seemed to show interest when he’d brought it up in casual conversation in the car, and it was more than rewarding to see that you enjoyed yourself, despite what happened with your ex being the wait staff and all. He liked the way you weren’t at all shy about eating a large burger and all of your fries. 

All he could hope for now, was that you enjoyed yourself no matter where you and he went. Sighing, Sans pressed his palm over his soul, at first feeling a surge of affection. 

He could feel something else starting to stir within him; anger?

Why was he so angry all of a sudden?

Maybe he’d go back to your room and talk it out with you. You helped people, so maybe you could you help him.

He wasn’t ready to walk straight into a nightmare. 

__

That damn screensaver incident made you so mad that you changed it to a basic background scenery thing. You couldn’t risk more popping up. Yeah, maybe Sans would think you’re a great artist, but you couldn’t keep that under wraps forever, you weren’t as good as the art you had on your computer, you didn’t even have a tablet. You couldn’t risk that again.

To vent not only that incident, but seeing Neiko again, you opened up the game. Undertale. While you had time earlier the past few nights, you had made considerable progress. Upon pressing continue, you finally found yourself in the judgement hall, but coming face to face with a pixelated version of your dinner date floored you.

You chewed on your bottom lip as you moved your little Frisk forward. You were so ready, yet so unprepared for this. Every line sounded like his voice.

And you couldn’t keep yourself from attacking now; you had come so far.

You were sobbing with every slash you made, and absolutely distraught by the time you got to the point where he’d spare you. 

___

He walked in and saw you sobbing, but he knew better than to approach you. He saw you playing that damned game again. This time, he saw something he thought he’d never see; you, controlling a tiny red heart, and bullet hell fighting himself. He read each line from over your shoulder, careful not to react.

You were relentless. You kept slashing and slashing with that damned video-game dagger. You were so hesitant before each press of the letter ‘z’. 

There was only one reason this game version of him would fight you.

One reason he would care. 

Killing his brother. 

Sans held his breath as he watched you fight. Then he read the lines he so utterly ached to remember.

Sparing “Frisk”. 

And he heard your hiccups and watched as tears dripped down your chin, and as you wiped your eyes, and as you hit spare. 

He didn’t doubt that you cared about him by the way you were reacting. 

He watched that now familiar typeface and sound beg you to never return--if you were truly friends. He remembered saying that several times. Several resets. 

He watched you reload your save.

Tears sprung to his eyesockets.

_You didn’t fucking reset._

Oh, hell no. He knew right when he was going to butt in.

You were doing _something_ and goddamn it, you were affecting _everyone_ by your selfish actions!

As the text appeared again for you to spare him, you hit fight. Sans drew in a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. 

And he spoke right along with that typeface. Right next to your ear. Just loud enough as to be sure you could hear him over your headphones. Deep enough to strike you with fear. 

**“Wow you look REALLY pissed off. I guess if you came back, that means we never really were friends.”**

And then with a whisper, when he was sure you'd hear him,

"and that you don't care about me..." 


	14. Soul Searching

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lots of explaining that we don't get to hear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HERE'S THE SOUL DIAGRAM I USED:
> 
> https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3oAnYdZ6vxE/VvnYqtxB2kI/AAAAAAABWDQ/xp2_3wNqZwwGklYl67dQmiIFHSxdcxA9Q/w430-h256/IMG_2900.PNG

Your breath caught in your throat as you tore your headphones off, shutting off the computer forcefully by pressing the power button, and turning toward Sans, who’s sockets were completely black as glowing blue tears streaked down the white bone. 

**“i thought you fucking cared about us”.**

Whatever gross sobbing you had made before was just increased as you bawled openly, your hands otherwise occupied by hitting your thighs repeatedly. Sans grabbed your balled fists and held them down, kneeling to look you in the eye. 

“why…” his voice was breaking. 

_“just a game….”_ you hiccuped, repeating this mantra over and over and over as panic and fear consumed your entire being. 

But Sans didn’t throw you around. Sans didn’t blast you to smithereens. Sans just watched you with an apathetic expression as you rode out your panic attack in full. 

As you calmed down, you looked at Sans, who had the white pinpricks of light confusedly scanning your face. 

“explain.” 

And so you did, telling Sans everything about the game from the different runs to the fan art and to the merch. He wasn’t surprised at much other than the fanart and merch (you may have accidentally stumbled across some skele-dong as you filtered through your backlog of saved fanart). 

After that little escapade, you both migrated over to the bed and sat across from each other, you leaning back against the headboard and him laying forward with his skull in his hands. 

In return, Sans told you everything about the game that was wrong, which wasn’t much, and that was surprising to you, and he also told you the effect the game was having on the monsters now that you were the only one with access to the damn thing, as far as he knew. You both kind of theorized on the idea that maybe if the game is played in close range to the monsters, that could be the reason it affects them. 

“So my genocide runs have been chipping away at the souls of the monsters I kill?” You asked incredulously as he was explaining the situation; you hadn’t stopped crying since he came into the room and you didn’t think you could stop now. 

“so how many times did you kill us?” he growled, asking a question you presumed he’d been holding in for the past--you looked at your watch--3 hours of explaining. 

“Uh, this was my uh, 3rd or 4th run…” you explained, your first and second runs having been played while they were still trapped in the barrier. 

You had the Undertale soundtrack playing in the background as you talked, hoping this would be a good way to help you calm down, as you couldn’t play the game anymore, for obvious reasons. 

Sans nodded as the song changed to one he smiled fondly at.

“this sounds like something papy would like” 

“It’s called Bonetrousle. It’s Pap’s battle music.” 

Sans nodded, his look becoming firm again as he looked in your eyes. 

“mind if i pull out your soul?” 

“EXCUSE ME SIR!” You shrieked, covering your chest with your arms, as if he was asking you to strip. 

“damn, kid. i just want to see how your soul is being affected.” Sans clarified, rolling his eyes as he leaned forward on your bed.

“So are we going to do this or what?” he asked, his hand positioned in front of your chest as you let your guard down. 

You never had seen your soul, and this seemed like a good opportunity to get to see it. With little forethought, you nodded. You needed to see how this was affecting you, since you had apparently been slowly killing people for two years.

Sans placed his hand over your heart and with a slow tug, you felt your very sense of being being forced in front of you. It felt like the room got colder and that your sense of self was primarily held inside of the glass-like heart in front of you. This glass like heart (which you wished you could put on a chain or something and wear it), was filled with what seemed like a very thin opaque liquid, and the color was a swirl of cyan and pale yellow. Your eyes swelled with tears. Patience and Diligence. What you didn’t understand, was why the substance within your soul wasn’t solid. 

What intrigued you even more were the stats that hovered beneath your soul, a flurry of white symbols. Your face became as pale as those numbers, as soon as you saw your LV and EXP. They weren’t too high, but they were definitely _there_. You couldn’t cry; instead of crying your soul trembled slightly with emotion, since everything you were was bottled up into a glass heart no bigger than the palm of your hand. 

Sans noted the state of your soul and pushed it back inside of your chest. Trembling, you took a breath as the world came back into focus, and as you were slammed with the tears you couldn’t cry before. 

“I’m so sorry!” You screeched, but before you could say anymore, Sans clapped a hand over your mouth. 

“hush. why were your colors not solid?” 

You shook your head and shrugged, still shaking from seeing your soul. 

“okay well before we figure out how to fix everyone else, we need to fix that little issue.”

You nodded. 

“which means we have to go see alphys.”

You nodded again. 

“tomorrow.” 

You blanched. 

“I work tomorrow!” You cried.

“have em send the calls to your cell phone, answer them as they come, and while we’re travelin’. this is just as urgent as saving other humans lives, since you’re killing so many of us.” 

Ouch that was a shot to the heart. Way to toss on the guilt Sans. 

“Traveling?” you asked, cocking your head; didn’t Undyne and Alphys live close by?

“we gotta go to alphys’s lab, and that’s still underground, since she hasn’t had the funds to build up here.” Sans didn’t seem too thrilled about going to Hotland (but you kind of were). 

“and i’m not gonna teleport there. i like the drive.” 

You nodded. 

He got up off of the bed and headed to the door; it was almost 5am. 

“we leave at 8:00am. get a nap, and we’ll head out. oh and delete that fucking game.” 

**You didn’t have to think twice.**


	15. A Relaxing Ride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riding up the mountain with Sans.

Your eyes fluttered and you thought you dozed off a couple of times, but those 3 hours just melted together and you watched the alarm clock flit from number to number. 2 hours in, you decided to get up and get dressed, but not without searching around for something to numb this apathetic bullshit you were suffering. 

You were just now coming out of shock, and the reality of what you’d done was hitting you. You couldn’t turn to the game because it was gone. You couldn’t do jack shit, and you hated it. 

“Get a hold of yourself, Bea…” You thought, searching through the closet until you found it. An X-Acto knife, still packaged, deep in a backpack in the corner of your closet. You tore off the packaging and made sure you had bandages, wet wipes, and your favorite blue and black striped gloves; they were elbow length. It had been over a year since you’d turned to this…

But how else were you going to pay for your sins?  
_____

You exited your room at 7:50, and Sans was at the door ready. You had a backpack with your laptop, charger, comfort items (a fuzzy blanket and a stuffed animal), and your very first Sans-like hoodie, a blue zip up with wool lined hood and inside. You had it in the backpack in case of cold, but for now, you just sported a black T-shirt and black shorts, the gloves were the only thing with any color on you. You could barely make out the raised indents of the bandages on your arms.  
____

Sans watched you meticulously, but not without pity. He didn’t understand why, but he couldn’t bring himself to be mad. He sat through at least half an hour of the “just a game” mantra. You had no idea what you were doing; if anything you probably denied it out of fear. He just didn’t want to be mad at you. He would justify your behaviour, no matter what. He still cared about you. Nothing could change that. 

However, he took interest in the gloves on your arms. They seemed a bit out of character, as did the way you ended up parting your hair, and he didn’t notice that blue sapphire eyebrow piercing before. He surmised that perhaps coming out of the shock and the stress of the situation caused you to revert to an earlier time in your life (he’d gotten some psychology lessons from you over the course of your ‘date’). You didn’t look him in the eye, and Sans supposed that was best. He held the door open for you as you slinked down the stairs and busied yourself with getting in the car and adjusting the seat belt. 

Sans sighed and sat in the driver’s seat, looking over at you with large, concerned eyes.   
__

“listen bea, i’m not mad.”

You snapped your head up. What? He wasn’t?

“Why not?” You asked, curiosity filling the crevices in your skull. 

“while i don’t understand the persistence you had in playing it while we inhabit your home, i understand habits and the habits formed for stress relief, sometimes detrimental. i understand that you didn’t know any other ways to cope with stress. i get that. i’m sorry i got so angry, but we’re gonna figure out why this game does what it does, and why it’s so...accurate…

which means running through my fight again, okay?”

You were a little weirded out that Sans claimed it as ‘his fight’, but you understood; by beating him, Alphys could analyze the effect the game was having on the surrounding area, on the magic, and on the soul. 

“while you’re doing that, between stuff, alphys will look at your soul and we’ll figure out why it’s not solid like every other human.” 

You just kept your head down and mumbled in agreement. This was all too surreal and you were still trying to wrap your head around the fact that Sans wasn’t mad at you. He even sort of understood. Sighing you reclined the seat back. Nap time. You were exhausted. Maybe with the assurance of Sans’ words, you could get some shut eye. Then you jolted up in remembrance. 

You had a job to do on this 3 and a half hour drive. Your calls were going to be sent to your cell. 

No sleep for the bay-bea. 

You clicked the lock button on your phone to check the time. You weren’t gonna begin recieving calls for another hour, so that was good. You looked over at Sans, whose attention was on everything but the road, which mildly concerned you; he watched the road enough to be a good driver, but he seemed...off.

“Do you still like me…?” You whispered, your voice hoarse from crying. 

Sans almost slammed on the breaks in shock. 

“what? no! i mean yes! i mean, fuck! i don’t know! there’s so much going on please this isn’t a conversation for right now!” 

You couldn’t hold back the tears again. Come on, Sans. You liked him, you had hit it off so well, and you guessed you could understand, but it still stung. The car started moving forward faster again. Flurries of honks cried out from the cards behind you. You could hear a chorus of “FUCK YOU!”’s. 

“oh no bea, please don’t cry. i don’t want to see you cry anymore. i’m sorry. it’s just, with so much going on, i didn’t think that was going to be a topic or anything. ugh i don’t know how i feel. this is so complicated, but bea. bea look at me. there we go. i think that we need time to sort things out. i don’t know if you like me for me, or if you just like the representations of me from before the barrier fell.”

Sans chuckled.

“however accurate the videogame is, was, whatever, i’m never going to match up to what some of those authors shaped me up to be.” 

You looked at him. 

“You’re right, Sans. You’re better.”

A faint blue blush tinted his cheekbones as he turned down an old highway you didn’t recognize. It led up the mountain, but you’d never taken this road before. You checked your phone. It was nearing 9 o'clock. So a two hour drive up this mountain for phone calls? What about reception? Maybe Alphys had that covered? You shrugged. In any case, you started recieving a call. Upon answering, you recognized a voice. 

“Hey Theo!” You greeted enthusiastically. 

Maybe this drive wasn’t going to be so bad.   
___

Sans listened to you the last two hours up the mountain. Listening to you save lives was actually pretty calming, and it reminded him of when he went to therapy shortly after they had opened up the mountain for monsters to live among people. He listened as you cried along with some of the callers, as you comforted them. Sans had to pull over to catch his bearings a couple of times because you were so… so perfect. You just had a way with people that he could only dream of having. He wondered if you’d be a better therapist, considering you actually knew about resets and things. 

Though, all things considered, that might not be a good thing either. 

All in all, You had the perfect voice for comforting people and you were so patient with them. He admired it. He also admired the color of your soul. Two colors that were so beautiful when mixed in a never ending spiral. He envied how those two colors could be so beautiful in your soul; his own soul pulsed…

They were so indicative of anger when those two colors swirled in his left eye socket. You made those colors seem like they were heaven.


	16. Apathetic Apologies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Labs are supposed to be fun?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uh, a general self harm warning.

You couldn’t breathe. You decided to call in sick for the rest of the day, and you were pretty sure your boss was getting fed up with you missing so many calls, but you knew they could handle it.   
By this time, you were only a half hour from where Sans said the parking spot was and you were growing more and more anxious, almost to the point you were afraid you would lose feeling entirely. 

Sans had at some point rested his boney hand on your knee, and you wanted to feel some sort of spark, but as quickly as the emotions came they were gone again, and you didn’t know what to do. You wanted to reach down into the backpack and cling to your knife, but you knew that would seem suspicious, so instead, you grabbed the old beaten hoodie that you cherished from your first Undertale spending splurge and hugged it to your chest, taking in the musk from the closet as dust flew from the wool that lined the inside of it.

“nice jacket” Sans commented, his hand reaching up to feel the wool. You half expected him to make some comment about ‘boyfriend material’ before you realized that this wasn’t going to be a ‘date’. This was going to be...experimental. You were a little terrified, but you had met Alphys. You hoped it wouldn’t be too bad.

___

Well, you couldn’t have been more wrong. 

  
“NYAHH! THE BITCH WHO’S DESTROYING OUR SOULS IS COMING?”

“U-Undyne, I’ve e-explained this! W-we know her! Y-you’ll see!”

You gulped as those muffled voices grew louder, and the heat from Hotland was taking a toll. You had no idea it could be so hot in a cave, but you chalked it up to the  _ fucking lava _ . The lab doors were tall and went far above both you and Sans’s heads, but you didn’t really care. You were beginning to care less and less as anxiety roared through your soul like wildfire. The anxiety was quickly becoming apathy, and as those huge lab doors opened, you barely registered the shock on Undyne’s face at the revelation of who you were, and you didn’t really care about the concerned look on Alphys’s face anymore. You just wanted to lock yourself away for a while.

Maybe you wouldn’t be feeling this way if you’d gotten adequate sleep. 

“you can go sit at that desk over there” Sans pointed at a desk that was up against the wall. Unlike in the game, there was nothing on it other than a few scattered papers. Maybe Alphys threw it all out. You pulled out your laptop, which had a copy of Undertale on it (Sans said to keep this copy for experimental purposes), and set it on the desk, pushing the papers aside. Before you could open it, or plug it in to charge, Alphys pulled the rolling chair you had plopped down in out from the desk, with you still in it, and spun you around to face her.  “S-sorry! S-sorry to be so forward, b-but I’d really l-like a look at your soul.”

You groaned and lay your head back, hoping to just get all of this shit over with. You wished you could have a better attitude but  _ someone _ didn’t think beauty sleep was a necessary thing for survival. 

“jeeze kid, you seem tired. maybe you should  **roll-** ax” Sans smirked, spinning the chair around a couple of times before bringing you to a stop again.

You held back a grin; at least he knew how to make you smile. Alphys placed her scaly, cute hobbit hands in front of your chest, kind of in the shape of an alligator mouth; one hand probably meant to be a cradle for your soul to float over, and the other to pull it out. You sucked in your breath and nodded. With a slight tug, you felt everything you were once again come away from you and focus itself into that familiar glassy encasing in front of you. You noted that your souls two colors were more opaque than before, leaving your soul almost clear, with a smokey version of the pale yellow and cyan that were more vibrant mere hours ago. 

“Alphys, why do my colors look like thin smoke?” You asked, trying to retain at least some remnant of your sanity. 

But in all honesty, Alphys looked almost as dumbfounded as you were.    
  
“It depends on whether you have a w-will to live or not, honestly” Alphys began, her stutter almost lost as she got into the thrill of explaining stuff, “but you’re so upbeat and happy go lucky, your colors sh-should be solid.” She concluded, pushing her glasses up on her snout. 

You sniffed slightly. How could she be so wrong?!

You shook your head.   
  
“Wh-why are you shaking your head...are you saying…y-you don’t--”

You just nodded, cutting her off by withdrawing into yourself, curling up into a ball on the tiny little rolly chair.    
  
Why did you agree to this.   
  
Why did Sans make you do this.    
  
Why were you so goddamn emotional?

Pushing your soul back into your chest, Alphys stood and walked away. You felt a familiar pair of bony arms wrap around you to comfort you.    
  
This was going to be the worst day ever. 

___   
  


Sans watched you as you started to break down again. Maybe he should’ve waited a day, sure, but this was  _ serious.  _ Sighing, Sans wrapped his arms around you and ran his phalanges through your hair, scratching your scalp lightly. He wanted you to calm down so they could just hurry and get this whole process over with. The sooner this was out of the way, the sooner he could start fixing whatever distance this stupid thing created. 

He shook as you shook, and held onto you, but he felt like he was just an intrusion at this point. Something that wasn’t doing anything close to helping your situation. He rubbed his hands down your arms, and over the gloves. However, he stopped when he felt the raised edge of the bandages. You pulled your arms sharply away from him and opened your eyes to whip your head back and glare at him.   
  
“YOU SON OF A BITCH” You screamed.

_ What the fuck did **I** do?  _ Sans thought, his shock causing him to reel back a bit. 

“My arms are sensitive.”

_ Oh that’s fucking bullshit.  _ Sans thought, his hands going back to the top of the gloves and trying to pull them off. He waved Alphys and Undyne out of the room first. You whispered apathetic apologies as they shuffled to the ‘true lab’ elevator, but Sans could tell your heart wasn’t into it. All of your thoughts seemed to be focused on Sans as he gingerly took off the gloves and set them on the floor. 

 

“what happened…?” Sans asked, carefully running a thumb over the homemade bandages covering a substantial length of your arm.

“It’s a long story.”   
  
“for some reason, kid, i doubt it.”

“I’m not a kid!”

“okay...squirt”

“Shut up.”

“only if you explain?”

Sans could’ve sworn the room got colder as you began to speak.    
_____   
  
“See Sans, humans are really weird. Some of us have weird chemical imbalances, and I’m as nutty as they come, so apparently my coping method of choice for emotional pain or apathy or whatever you want to call it is to inflict pain. Now usually, I would turn to a supposedly harmless video game. Hence why we’re here in the first place. But since that’s gone, I’ve had to use some less conventional methods of infliction. To feel  _ something _ other than what I happen to be feeling. That method is this.”   
  
You ripped off the bandages painfully to reveal the scabbed over lines that littered the soft pale skin beneath. You heard Sans’ breath hitch in his nonexistent throat, and you could’ve sworn the grip he had on your arms tightened. Ouch. Either way, he was clearly more upset than you were.    
  
When you looked at it from your perspective, it seemed relatively harmless. A few lines here, a few there, it made no difference. It was a habit. A coping mechanism.  
  
_ At least you weren’t dead.  _


	17. Going Once! Going Twice! Souled!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little more Soul information, and a way to fix your friends!!!

_ It couldn’t get any worse _ , you thought.

Sans was bent down, tracing a phalange over every cut, It felt like he had fingers, like padded. You were a little taken back by how  _ human _ he felt, but you knew it was just magic, like everything that was weird with Sans the Skeleton. You studied his face as he inspected your arms, watching him furrow his brow in what you assumed to be concern.

As you watched him, he did something you didn’t really think he’d do. He tried to use his healing magic to close them. To heal them. To make them disappear. But all that did--because you didn’t want the damn things gone--was leave a few ugly scars that could’ve been avoided had they healed properly.

“it takes two for this to work right…” Sans acknowledged, trying to explain things you felt like you could’ve guessed by the dastardly results; healing magic only works if both parties want the thing to be healed. 

“I know.” You growled curtly. 

How could he be so naive? Of course you didn’t want to be healed! You did this to yourself in the first place! On the plus side, you had about 7 wicked scars to show for it. Reminders of a battle you were fighting. But you wanted to make those scars  _ on your own _ . Stupid skele. Always getting in the way.

Wait… no he wasn’t. He was trying to help you. You tried to organize your thoughts. 

_ Just stay calm, Bea.  _ You reminded yourself.    
  
__ Stay calm.   
____   
  
It was only a few minutes before you had put the gloves back on, put the bloody bandages in your backpack, and called Undyne and Alphys back in, explaining to them that you wanted some time alone with Sans. 

Looking back, it wasn’t necessarily a lie, just not the reason either you or Sans had sent them out. It didn’t mean you didn’t cherish the time together though, no matter how...depressing.

Undyne was wary around you; not mad, not angry, just a neutral, which was out of character for her. She just stood back as Alphys would examine your soul and extract some of the color from it and put it in a glass test tube with a stopper in it.  You watched as she put a drop of it into a machine. A bunch of words you could only guess were some medical or magical terms appeared on the machines small screen.

“Th-that’s strange. These aren’t even your primary s-soul colors!” Alphys gasped, her eyes scanning the screen and coming to rest on the graph analysis of the two colors.

“So does that mean patience and diligence aren’t my soul colors?” You asked, your heart dropping.    
  
“Not at all.” Alphys said curtly, “It means that your soul adapted to conform to these traits--which means that with whatever these traits were needed for gone, your original soul color should be prevalent.” 

You nodded along, following, but that didn’t explain the colorlessness away from the cyan and light yellow.

“B-but that would only be true if you had a reason to live--wh-which you do! Just, you haven’t found it yet.”

Oookay, that made more sense! You just needed to find a reason to exist, get out of this pit of despair you’d found yourself in, and you’d have your soul back! Woo!

“won’t that take too long? we still gotta figure out what she’s doing to our friends” Sans interjected, his voice steady and firm. 

“Y-yes of course, p-please sit at the desk and open the game, Bea.” Alphys instructed politely. 

You nodded, a little disappointed you couldn’t just  _ go home _ , but you knew this was necessary. Considering Sans had popped back into your room after telling you to delete the game, just to tell you to transfer it to your laptop for testing, you were a little relieved to hear the opening music as you opened Undertale, relieved that the file from your computer had transferred to the laptop just fine--and lo and behold, Sans fight, here you come!

Walking up to that “smiley trash-bag” as Flowey so affectionately calls him, you continued the fight. Sans sat next to you at the desk, and you requested he read every line, but not seriously, because you didn’t know if you could take it. He obliged, and you were glad. It was better than going through it alone. You could tell he wasn’t very into it though. Alphys watched and listened, glancing between you and the machine for a bit.

Between turns, she would ask Sans how he was faring. He would do fine, but you were determined to get to the end of the fight; this time it was to save monsters, and save Sans, not kill them (or him).    
  
However, you still died 10+ times in the process, which was frustrating in itself. Eventually Sans just stopped reading lines and fell asleep. Whatever. You were on a mission. You nudged Sans with a foot as you got to the special attack--doing nothing. Sans watched the screen as you hit fight and the slash shook the pixelated Sans to his knees. 

Beside you, Sans let out a harsh, pained yell as he held his hand over where his soul was. Your eyes searched his in concern. He grunted as he urged you to just complete the scene already. So you did. Sans slid off screen and turned to dust, you presumed. Sans groaned.    
  
“definitely chipped.” he panted. 

Your eyes filled with tears. Alphys watched the machine.    
  
“So it just seems as if whatever force dwells inside the game is absorbing the bits of soul and just dissolving them into magic energy, which just dissipates into the air...” Alphys noted quietly, but everyone heard her.    
  
There was no way to get the soul pieces back…

You put your head in your hands.    
  
“W-well there is one way to r-restore everyone, since it isn’t m-much soul.”   
  
You looked up.    
  
“Anything…” you said, “I’ll do anything.”  
  


Alphys rolled up her sleeves on her white lab coat, running a hand over the top of her head, scales against scales making a slight scratching sound. She looked at you uncertainly and down at the ground.

“G-give pieces of your own s-soul to replace the chipped pieces.”   


You paled.    
  
“W-wont that damage my soul? Won’t it hurt?!” You cried, a hand over your chest, aching at the thought.    
  
“Of course i-it will…” Alphys began, “but if you don’t, it’ll take years for their souls to h-heal. Your human s-soul will only need six months at least.” She casted a look at Sans, who nodded. 

You looked at Sans, whose hand was still clutched over his chest, and at Undyne, who had walked up behind Alphys to hug her from behind, nodding vigorously at you, her eye that wasn’t covered in an eyepatch wide and desperate. 

  
“I’ll do it.” You relented, “I’ll fix my friends.”


	18. Heading Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You learn how you're gonna save your buddies, and you also kind of eat some Chicken Alfredo.

“How am I going to fix my friends?” You asked; it couldn’t be  _ that hard. _ “Just give them bits of my soul? Like all nice?”   
  
Undyne and Sans blushed and Alphys had to suppress a snicker. 

“N-no, Bea...uh, that...th-that’s bonding...and definitely not what you’re trying to do…” Alphys giggled, hiding her mouth behind a hand as she tried not to crack up.

You couldn’t help it; you looked at Sans and waggled your brows at him. If he wasn’t a shade of light blue already, he definitely was now, and it was getting darker as you added a couple of winks into it. 

Undyne couldn’t help herself. She started bursting into loud guffaws that you were sure the entire Hotland could hear.

You all laughed a bit before the mood slunk back into seriousness, and a sobering atmosphere settled in the lab. 

“So how?” You reiterated, hoping to get a better answer than what your brain had concocted. 

“W-well”--Alphys began--

“it uses a refined model of the determination extractor, specifically for just taking bits of human soul” Sans interrupted, placing a hand on your shoulder, “and it’s very painful.” 

You nodded and looked at Alphys, who you assumed didn’t know much about the game other than what had been said to her by Sans. And you hadn’t told Sans much of anything about how in depth the game actually was. Hopefully, she wouldn’t have to know much. And if you could help it, neither would Sans. 

With a sigh, you brushed your hair back from in front of your eyes and played with your eyebrow piercing.    
  
“Can we do this tomorrow? I’m a little tired…” You admitted, looking down, placing your hands in your lap.    
  
“O-Of course! Y-you seem e-exhausted so you should r-rest!

You shrugged and stood up, stretching your back and arms, hoping that you could finally get some rest.    
  
As you stepped outside, you realized.    
  
“Sans, is Toriel going to be there tomorrow?” 

You gulped as he popped beside you.    
  
“yup-- you hurt her too remember?” 

You nodded. You just were a little nervous to meet the queen of monsters, is all.    
  
But you had the rest of the day; you were surprised to check your phone and see that it was only about 2:00pm. You’d be home by 5, which would give enough time to cook dinner. 

You groaned. Maybe you’d use these hours to sleep. That sounded good. But Sans had other ideas, like driving roughly enough to keep you awake so you could chat.

“please don’t sleep…” Sans finally said, looking over at you, “i like the company.”   


Your heart thumped and turned in your chest. Why did Sans have to be so cute? You rubbed your eyes and kept the seat straight up to keep you from laying back. You let the wind blow through your hair and you messed with your gloves, pulling them off as the heat of the day soaked into your skin, and putting them into your backpack. 

After that though, he didn’t really say much. He’d ask you about why certain things were the way they were. At one point you passed a pasture that had horses and cows in it.    
  
“oh my god” Sans said, pulling over, “aaron would get a kick out of these”. 

You snorted. 

“He’d be mad the horses couldn’t float in the air,” you began, “but he might have fun riding them.” You said, nudging Sans’ side and winking.    
  
Sans just laughed, his voice drawing the gaze of a couple of the horses.    
  
“ok i can drive again” Sans said, putting the vehicle back into drive, “so they’re called horses?”   
  
You nodded.    
  
“I don’t know why though…” you pondered, shrugging, “You haven’t seen horses before?”

Sans shook his head.    
  
“From mountains to city. Once they opened up Ebott for us to leave, I kind of slept the whole way into the city…” Sans admitted, scratching the back of his skull with a hand. 

You chuckled, smoothing your shirt out and looking at the road, laying your head back on the headrest a little bit, thinking about things you needed to do around the house, including dusting. The entertainment center had developed a fine layer of dust over the past couple of weeks and you knew you’d have to take a feather duster to it at some point. You were a little nervous about mentioning it out loud though; you were nervous you might sound weird saying ‘i need to dust the house’.    
  
“hey bea,” Sans said, knocking you out of your thoughts, “can i help you dust the furniture when we get home? it’s been a  _ mite _ uncomfortable around the house lately; been making me feel under the  _ feather.” _

You snorted as the terrible puns poured from his mouth. Not only that, but he had brought it up before you did! How convenient. You muttered your agreements, turning your attention to his face. He looked so focused on the road this time around, making you feel better about riding with him. As he caught you staring, his signature grin just widened.

This drive was going to be so great. 

___

By the time you and Sans pulled into the apartment parking lot, your stomach ached from laughing, and your cheeks were sore from smiling so much. Sans opened the door for you and you grinned and hugged him before grabbing your backpack and making your way into the house.

“Papyrus! We’re back!”

You heard a clatter in the kitchen that sounded like pots and pans.

“NYEH! I’M SO GLAD! I JUST STARTED DINNER!” Papyrus bounded into the livingroom where you were standing in front of the front door, Sans peeking from behind you, laughing. You made way for him to enter and he closed the door. Papyrus walked over to you and enveloped you in a tight  _ bone crushing _ hug. 

“What’s for dinner, Pap?” you wheezed, causing Papyrus to let you go.

As you took a whiff, your question was answered, and you said it at the same time Papyrus did. 

"Chicken Alfredo!” “CHICKEN ALFREDO!” 

Sans grinned and flopped back onto the loveseat, putting his feet up on the coffee table, arms behind his head. 

“can’t wait bro.” 

You plopped next to Sans as Papyrus went back into the kitchen. 

“DON’T LET SANS’ LAZINESS RUB OFF ON YOU!” Papyrus admonished.    
  
“I prefer to call it selective participation!” You gasped, feigning offense.   
  
“THAT ONLY WORKS IF YOU ACTUALLY PARTICIPATE IN SOMETHING!” Papyrus laughed from the kitchen, taking it light heartedly.    
  
“You hush.” You responded, your smile drooping as tiredness took hold of you.    
  
Yawning, you lay your head on Sans’ shoulder.    
  
“Wake me when dinner’s ready…” you whispered.    
  
“nah.” Sans responded, conking out with you.

Nap time~   
___

“BEA! SANS! DINNER IS READY. GET OFF THE COUCH AND COME LET ME DISH YOU UP!” Papyrus called from the kitchen, rousing you from your pleasant dream about Sans, who was just about to piggyback you to Ferns, and you really wanted some orange juice. Yawning, you decided to sit up, however, you were being held down by a bony arm across your midsection.    
  
“Sans…” you groaned, shaking him by leaning into him repeatedly.    
  
“mmm” he murmured, cracking his eyes open. Upon noticing his arm was around you, he quickly withdrew it, a string of curses and apologies falling from his mouth. With the newfound freedom, you got up and trudged into the kitchen, rubbing your eyes. 

“Thanks for dinner, Papyrus.” you yawned, grabbing a plate and scooping some of the alfredo onto it from the pot. You leaned your head on Papyrus’s shoulder as you did so and nudged him.    
  
“OF COURSE! I AM SURE YOU WILL LOVE IT!” Papyrus beamed, a hand on his chest and the other on his hip, his red scarf billowing slightly as if there were wind in the house. You had to chuckle.    
  
As you walked back out into the livingroom, you shoved a forkful of the chicken alfredo into your mouth and almost cried from how delicious it was. You sat down by Sans, who was getting up to get some dinner. Papyrus came in with a plate and took his spot, placing the plate on his lap and putting an arm around your shoulders. Just then, Boss, the kitten, jumped up beside Papyrus and began to sniff the plate, tentatively sticking its tongue out to taste it.    
  
“BOSS THIS IS NOT FOR MEOW MEOWS!” Papyrus admonished.    
  
You couldn’t hold back a chuckle.  _ Meow Meows?! _

Sans burst into laughter from the other room.    
  
“IT SOUNDS CUTE!” Papyrus said defensively, putting the plate on the coffee table and taking the small kitten into his arms, petting it with one bony hand and nuzzling his teeth to the top of it’s head. 

“BESIDES YOU STILL HAVEN’T ASKED THE STORE WHETHER IT’S A BOY OR A GIRL OR ANYTHING.” Papyrus scolded playfully, “ALTHOUGH IT DOESN’T REALLY MATTER.” 

You chuckled and nodded, leaning against Papyrus as Sans sat in the beanbag chair, placing his own bowl in his lap and beginning to eat. Papyrus put the cat in a little cat bed beside the loveseat and picked up his food and began to eat too. You figured you’d join them.    
__

Dinner passed without an incident as Sans even volunteered to do dishes. With a grumble, you stood up and trudged into your room. It was only 7:00pm, and the boys had wanted to watch a movie, but you were so tired still. You looked longingly at your computer, wishing you hadn’t transferred the game to your laptop for a second, but you reminded yourself that this was good. You needed to live in the present; post barrier.

Crawling into bed, you pulled the covers up around you, all the way up to your chin. Tossing and turning, you struggled to sleep. But eventually it came.    
  
Tomorrow was a big day; you were gonna fix some monsters!


	19. Justified Suicide

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some fluff with a hard decision to make.

If you had one more nightmare you vowed you’d never sleep again. Or, at least that’s what you thought when you ended up waking up at almost 4am: sweaty--with tears streaming down your face, and a scream halfway through your lungs. Rolling over you sighed. You had hoped that getting everything resolved would also resolve the nightmares. But all you could see when you closed your eyes was being hooked to a machine and seeing your colorless soul shatter into thousands of glassy shards. 

“Deep breaths Bea…” you said aloud, stepping out of your room and out into the kitchen. You heard Papyrus snoring slightly from his room, and you could hear a deep grunt that you assumed to be Sans. Yawning, you located the tea kettle and put it on a burner, leaning against the counter. Closing your eyes, you listened to the sounds of the house, including the water starting to heat up.    
  
While you were daydreaming, you heard Sans’ door click open and you looked over at the small hallway to see Sans stepping out into it, rubbing his already dark eyes. Looking at you in the illuminated kitchen, he walked over and sat on the counter opposite you. 

“Can’t sleep?” You asked groggily, your voice still deep and thick. 

“thassit…” Sans slurred, his voice sounding like a deep drunken rumble. 

You shrugged, taking the kettle off of the burner as you heard the water boiling, as not to have the whistle wake Papyrus. 

“Coffee, tea, or hot chocolate?” you queried as your voice became a little stronger.    
  
Although Sans was about your height, you couldn’t help but notice that even sitting down, he was taller than you (either that or you had a habit of slouching). He motioned with his hand something you didn’t quite get. Was that sign language? 

“I’m sorry... what?” Your voice shook with uncertainty as you asked what it was he said. 

“oh sorry, i sometimes forget that sign language isn’t universally known up here. hot chocolate please.” He rasped, seeming not willing to really talk at all. 

You wondered if Sans was selectively mute after nightmares; if so, you’d really have to learn to pick up sign language. You knew bits and pieces, so you balled your hand into a loose fist and circled it clockwise in front of your chest, saying “sorry”.

He just nodded and shrugged, and you grabbed a couple of hot chocolate packets from the cupboard, opening them into mugs; a skeleton mug for Sans, and a new mug (you guessed Sans bought it), with yellow and black stripes--the handle was wing shaped--a bee mug.

“Thanks for the mug, Sans.” You chuckled, pouring the hot water into his mug and handing it to him, motioning to sugar and mini marshmallows, and also handing him a peppermint candy, just in case he wanted to spice things up a bit. You put a peppermint in yours and stirred it thoroughly, putting a few marshmallows on top as well. 

Sans just kept his hot chocolate plain, save for about three marshmallows. You motioned for him to follow as you sat on the loveseat, sipping your cocoa and curling up in the throw blanket that had been draped across the back of the two-person couch.

“If you don’t want to talk, that’s fine...but I kind of want to talk about my nightmare….if you don’t mind…” You whispered, motioning for Sans to take a seat.

He did, putting an arm around you, resting his elbow on your shoulder, and running his phalanges through your hair. You blushed, and Sans didn’t seem to show any signs in stopping, so you leaned into his hand, watching him. He nodded as if in encouragement for you to speak, so you explained what your nightmares were consisting of: soul shattering, whirring machines, and your crumpled corpse.

Sans just massaged your scalp as you explained how terrified you were of the upcoming events, not really providing any words of encouragement or of criticism or judgement, he just sat there, nodding and sometimes slightly hugging you closer in a method of comfort.

You weren’t expecting him to say anything, but it was still strange to have the usually punny and smiling skeleton seem so dejected and worn down. 

“it’s not like we’re doing all of the reparations at once.” Sans said softly, keeping his voice down, “gotta wait a month for your soul to recuperate before giving another small piece away. fixing everyone at once might kill ya.” 

You exhaled a large sigh of relief knowing that you weren’t going to be asked to give your soul away to all of the monsters at once. You wondered who would be first though. You kind of hoped it’d be Papyrus, but Toriel would probably make more sense. Either way, you were going to be meeting with everyone tomorrow to apologize; except for Asgore. You never actually end up killing him in game, Flowey does. And according to everyone else, Asgore never gets soul sick.

With a yawn, you leaned against Sans’ side, which wasn’t as ribby and boney as you expected; it felt like he had skin there, even though you could clearly see the outline of his ribs beneath his shirt. Shrugging, you leaned and he rubbed your back. 

“Sans?” You began, worried you were overstepping a boundary here, “um, after nightmares, are you like...selectively mute or something?” 

Sans stalled his hand mid rub and looked over at you as you tilted your head up to look at him.    
  
“yeah” he stated simply, continuing to rub your back instead of elaborating.    
  
Dropping the subject, you just leaned against him, waiting for 9:00am to roll around; 3 and a half hours and you’d be out the door and back on your way to the lab.    
  
“You know, you can always talk to me about your dreams Sans.” You whispered boldly, nuzzling your face up onto his shoulder. 

“thanks, you’re a  _ dream _ come true” Sans chuckled, “went and kid- _ napped _ my heart.”

You were a little worried your laugh was going to wake Papyrus, but as long as Sans didn’t see the blush that rose to your cheeks, you’d be fine. Luckily he didn’t see, and you were also safe from that cranky lanky skeleton.

Sans laughed and exhaled, which sent a small puff of dust spiraling up off of the coffee table. You inhaled sharply, looking over at Sans whose eyes got really wide before you tackled him in a hug.    
  
“It’s just house dust I promise. Let’s dust, since we forgot to do it yesterday…” you cooed, hoping he’d accept and you wouldn’t have to watch him cry or have a flashback or anything. You wanted him to be okay.    
  
Sans laughed.    
  
“jeeze kid, you seem more bothered by stupid dust mites than i am” Sans said, grabbing a couple of feather dusters from the hall closet and tossing one to you. 

You spent more time tickling each other with the overrated feather bouquets than actually dusting.   
__   
  
It was about 7am when you both finished dusting, and Sans thought that since you were both awake anyway, you might as well leave early. Sans left a note for Papyrus, who would be leaving to come down to the lab at about 10, and you cooked Papyrus some french toast that he could heat up when he woke. Sliding down the banister to the sidewalk on the ground, you ran to the car and begged Sans to toss you the keys. He hesitantly obliged and you squealed in excitement. You got to drive to Ebott! 

Sans however, he seemed more agitated at letting you drive than anything. But he relaxed as he noted your prowess at driving; okay your mediocracy at driving~ but that didn’t matter! You got to drive the convertible with only Sans in the passenger seat. This was going to be a blast. 

___   
  
It wasn’t a blast. Halfway through the trip, your thoughts got a hold of you. You started thinking hard about donating all of your tiny soul chips at once to each monster who needed them. You didn’t really care if it killed you, as long as your newfound friends could live. You hadn’t even met Toriel, Muffet or Mettaton, but you knew meeting them today was going to go over well. You knew you’d hit it off--or at least you hoped so. 

In a way, you guessed you were justifying your own suicide in a sense. Sans did say that donating all of your soul pieces at once could kill you. You didn’t care. You wanted them healthy, no matter the cost. And you didn’t want to delay it for who knows how many months. It wasn’t worth it.    
  
Sans, upon noticing your sullen expression, asked you what was wrong.    
  
“I’m fixing them all today.” You said, fixed in your decision. 

The sound that came out of Sans’ mouth shocked you, mainly because you didn’t expect such a sharp reaction; a very loud--   
  
“NO!” He screamed. It took everything in you to keep from pulling over. “BEA. I WON’T LET YOU!” Your hands shook against the wheel.    
  
“It’s my soul, Sans. I can do what I want.”

With a huff, he sat back in the seat…  
  
You could have sworn he muttered something about not losing you like this again, but you just brushed it off.    


  
He must’ve been talking about a nightmare.


	20. Barely Breathing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title explains it.

The walk through Hotland wasn’t as bad, now that you were wearing a tank top and shorts. You didn’t realize how hot those gloves from yesterday made you feel, and no not like that. Sighing, you tipped your head back and lolled it over to look at Sans. 

“You okay?”

Sans huffed, sweat beading onto his skull as you approached the lab. It loomed over everything else, leaving you a little nervous about going in, despite your previous attendance there. Sans seemed apprehensive too, but probably for different reasons.

“yeah, just a little nervous”

“I’ll be fine, bonehead.” You assured him, giving him a very light noogie on the top of his head. 

His grin lifted a bit, but he still didn’t seem convinced. Wrapping your arm around his back, you both walked through the sliding doors of the lab. 

“H-hey guys! Y-you’re early! 

You nodded, explaining the situation of staying up half the night due to various reasons. Alphys seemed to understand, but insisted that both you and Sans take a nap before everyone else arrived. She really wanted you to have all of the energy you needed for this to work. First, you pulled the small yellow dinosaur aside.

“Hey Alphys, I think I’m going to give all of the pieces today,”

“B-B-Bea! T-That could kill you!”.

“she knows that.”

“Sans, stop plaguing my conversation with uneccessary interruptions!”

“are you sure you’re not spending too much time with paps?”

“Y-you do s-sound a lot like P-Papyrus…”

“Ugh! Sans, let me talk to Alphys,” You groaned, turning your head over to Alphys to continue the conversation. 

“Anyways,” you continued, “I don’t care what happens to me, as long as my friends are okay.”

Alphys tried standing her ground, but as she soon figured out, your position wasn’t swaying. If Sans couldn’t convince you, neither could she. You stretched out your arms and popped your back as you walked back over to where Sans was standing. The smile he gave you was tense. 

“You okay, bone boy?” You did a couple of stretches with your legs, sitting on the floor and looking up at Sans. 

“yeah, just hate hearin’ bones crack,” Sans admitted, “ever since the first time pap…”

You cut him off before he could finish by initiating a bone crushing hug. You didn’t let go for quite a while either. You felt responsible for so much, and you couldn’t hold back. You needed him to trust that you would do everything you could to be there for him and his brother. 

“I won’t crack anything around you then. I promise,” you swore, holding your hand out for him to grab your pinky.

“wha--”

“It’s a pinky promise. You wrap your pinkies around each other to signify the promise. Breaking a pinky promise is worse than a regular promise. So I promise I won’t crack anything if you don’t want me to. I’ll warn you first if I do,” You explained, reiterating your promise at the end. 

Sans paused, considering your words before hesitantly wrapping the last set of phalanges on his hand around your pinky. 

Once again, you were astonished to find that his pinky felt more like a regular pinky than sets of bone, and you had to ask yourself if he had some invisible body you didn’t know about. 

Regardless, the sentiment was the same--until he kissed his thumb, motioning for you to do the same. You did. And then he pressed them together. 

“something to make it special. just for us,” he explained, using the pinky promise to pull you toward him into another hug. 

You were taken aback. 

“For us?” You asked. 

“if you come out of this alive bea, i’d like us to be more than friends.”

‘Holy fucking shit,’ you thought, a hand over your chest, your head nodding up and down without you willing it to. 

You hoped that you made it through this alive. You hoped that this skeleton would be yours. Hopefully he was being serious.

“Promise?” You asked, holding your pinky out again.

“promise.” He wrapped his pinky around yours and kissed each other's respective thumbs, pressing them together.  
__

When everyone arrived, you were sure to sit in the middle of the circle of people as Alphys and Sans explained what was going on in very minor detail. None of the monsters seemed willing to blame you. They more-so blamed the developer. Even so, you felt all of their gazes upon you. Including Toriel’s, who was looking at you the way a mother would look at a child who had fallen and scraped their knee, or crossed the street without looking both ways. 

In Toriel’s lap was a very solemn Frisk, who seemed to be about 10 years old. They looked up at you with curious eyes and a hard expression. You hoped they didn’t blame you too much, and you wondered if they knew of Undertale before falling into the Underground.

You peeled your eyes away from goat-mom and her child. 

Your resolve just strengthened as each and every face was aimed to you, hope in the eyes of every monster. Except for Sans. Sans was...gone? You groaned to yourself. Why did he leave? You wanted him there for you as support. You thought he liked you! You started to seethe a little bit, but quelled it as you saw him come out from what you presumed to be the elevator to the True Lab. 

“everything seems to be in order, alph,” Sans said, stretching as he sat in the circle, next to Toriel. Frisk crawled over into Sans lap and signed to him. You watched them sign to each other and interact and you almost died from how cute it was. 

Everyone seemed to stand up at once, Sans carrying Frisk on his hip. Frisk was pretty tall for a ten year old, so with Sans carrying them, their head was above his. Frisk laughed and signed something. You guessed it had something to do with being taller than Sans. Sans just laughed, craning his neck back as the hearty bellow engulfed all of the apprehension in the room and threw it out. 

God, this skeleton was amazing.  
__

Sans put Frisk down as soon as everyone was in the elevator, heading to the true lab; it had much more light now and was a lot more spacious with the amalgamates and everything gone; well, more spacious than in the game. You noticed that the lab entries were still on the walls though. Nobody read them. 

You all walked into what had been the bedroom, which was instead a large empty room that had been fashioned into somewhat of a waiting room situation. A remastered determination extractor was hooked to a machine in the corner that had two chairs hooked to it. Alphys clearly went for a more comfortable route and had the chairs made into recliners. They seemed really similar to La-Z-Boy recliners, the kind you could fall asleep in. 

Sitting in the one Alphys pointed you to, you took a deep, shaky breath as alphys pulled your soul out and put it beneath the determination extractor thing in a small tube. You watched it as it floated there, spinning lightly. Clear as a bell. No blue. No yellow. No colour. Just a clear glassy heart. Papyrus sat in the chair beside you, volunteering to go first, as you wanted him to. You watched as Alphys flicked a few switches and entered numbers into a computer. As it extracted a small bit of your soul, you cried out, clinging to the armrests of the chair that was far too comfortable for a situation like this. 

Agonizing screams flew from your throat. You looked over at Papyrus, who wasn’t in pain but actually looked like relief was washing over him, as if he gained something he was missing. In a way, you supposed he had. 

And you had to go through this hell five more times?  
Grunting in pain as Papyrus left the chair, you watched as Toriel sat there next. Frisk sitting on the floor to play with her feet/paw things. 

As the machine whirred to life again, you watched Toriel cover Frisks ears as the pain from your soul worsened, causing your entire being to go into tremors this time. Your screams were cut off by running out of breath to scream with and your eyes rolled into the back of your head. Before, that happened though, you cast a desperate look at Sans, who was watching you in horror. You thought you heard him say something, but his voice was muffled by the pounding in your head.

“stay strong, bea.”

Two down. Four to go.  
__

Four monsters later (everyone but Sans), you passed out in the recliner, soul safely back in your chest, everybody else healed. Sans was so relieved; you weren’t dead. He sat on the arm of the recliner, running his phalanges through your hair. You stirred, but didn’t wake. Sans wondered how long it would be until you woke up. 

Carefully, he took you into his arms, saying goodbye to everyone but Papyrus, and headed to the car, Papyrus at his heels. 

“IS SHE GOING TO BE OKAY SANS?” Papyrus asked, worried and scared for your safety. 

“Yeah paps, she just got knocked out is all, and her hp is down to one. she’ll be okay.” 

“I HOPE SO. I DON’T WANT TO HEAR HER HURT LIKE THAT EVER AGAIN,” Papyrus whimpered, opening the door to the convertible so that Sans could place you in the backseat. 

“neither do i, bro.”

Sans got into the front seat next to Papyrus, and Papyrus started driving back to the apartment. 

“I’m glad everyone else is feeling better,” Papyrus said, lowering his voice to show a bit more sincerity while looking over at Sans and smiling.

Sans just nodded. 

He hadn’t wanted it to cost this much.  
__

“IS BEA AWAKE YET”

“nope.” 

“BUT SANS IT’S BEEN TWO WEEKS.”

“i know.”  
__

“SANS! HOW IS BEA?”

“still sleeping bro”

“SANS...IT’S BEEN A MONTH.”

“i know…”  
__

“Sans...open the door for me, brother... please. You can’t lock yourself in there with her without nourishing yourself.”

“maybe tomorrow bro…”

“Sans. You’ve been saying this for the past three months. Maybe you should let go.”

“papyrus, i’m not leaving till she wakes up.”

“Fine. I’ll put some spaghetti outside the door. Get it whenever you’re ready.  
__

“Sans, I’m coming in. We can read her a story if you want, since it’s now the fifth month.”

“ok bro. same one as last time?”

“Sure, Sans. Fluffy Bunny Gets A Cake?”

“yeah.”

“Alright,” papyrus coughed, adjusting your IV’s and feeding tubes that were next to your bed, “FLUFFY BUNNY WENT TO THE BAKERY….”  
__

“I don’t think she’s going to wake up, Sans.” Alphys said, sitting next to sans on your bed.

“It’s been seven months, Brother…”  


“Come on, Sans! You can’t sit here for the rest of your life!” Undyne roared. 

“I CAN AND I WILL!” Sans roared, “I LOVE HER AND I’M NOT GIVING UP ON HER! I MADE HER A PROMISE AND I PLAN ON KEEPING IT!”

As if on cue, a cough and a very hoarse whisper came from your bed. 

“Y-you love me?”


	21. Live, Laugh, Love.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waking up, and adjusting to being awake.

You reached out with your voice to the words being spoken.

“You love me?” You tried to say.    
  
But as soon as the words were out you slipped away again. Back into this void of nothingness. A distant voice calling for you to wake up, to stay awake. You let your mind slip back into this void of empty longing that you’d gotten used to for the past few days. You think it’s only been days, anyways. Dreams were weird. And you’d been having some crazy weird dreams about the Judgement Hall, Frisk, almost anything Underground related, and you assumed it was from too many videogames.

But more and more, after each dream, you felt yourself become more and more  _ determined _ to wake up. And it would become easier. You were eventually able to get a sentence out more frequently. But you still couldn’t open your eyes. 

You also found yourself becoming angrier at the fact you couldn’t wake up. But you kept trying. 

__   
  
Sans clung to every sentence you managed to get out. They started out a week in between, but now you were saying sentences at least once every day. He had started writing them all down.    
  
Nov. 10th -  _ You love me? _

**[[7 days]]** _  
_

Nov. 17th -  _ I love you too, bonehead. _ _  
_

_ **[[7 days]]**  
_

Nov.  25th -  _ I’m so close Sans, I can feel it.  _

**[[2 days]]**

Nov. 27th--Thanksgiving -  _ I’m so close to waking up! Any day now! _

****[[1 day]]** **  


Nov. 28th -  _ 4th of July will be so much fun.  _ __  
__  
Upon writing that, he choked up. You’d slept through quite a few nice holidays that Sans had wanted to celebrate with you, even Thanksgiving. Luckily, he had Papyrus videotape them for you; he hoped you’d wake up before Christmas. As he tapped his pen against his mandible, he looked over into your eyes just as they tried to open, light sensitive. You reached out for Sans hand and he firmly grasped it, calling for the in home nurse that he had hired; her name was Trista. 

__

  
“I’m awake.” You whispered around the feeding tube, starting to panic that you had a bunch of tubes in you.    
  
The nurse came in and started to remove everything from the feeding tube to the catheter; luckily you hadn’t shit yourself or anything since the first time you were changed that day. Once everything was disconnected, you did your best to sit up, but to no avail. Sans tried to help, but the nurse just laid you back down.    
  
“You have to take things slow.” The nurse said, her hand on yours. You just stared at her with wide eyes, which were finally adjusting to the light. The nurses black hair fell to her shoulders, and she seemed nice enough. Sighing, you calmed yourself down and turned your sore head and neck over to look at Sans, who was sitting in a fold up chair next to your bed. You felt very uncomfortable and peeled your blankets off of yourself, looking down to see that you had become very thin, and your muscles were definitely atrophied. You started to cry.    
  
“H-how long was I asleep?” You whispered, voice still lost. “Did I miss celebrating easter? The summer solstice?” Your tears gathered more. “Did I miss the Fourth of July?!” 

“b-bea…” Sans whispered, his own voice cracking with emotion, “you missed more than that…. It’s december first."    
  
You tried to scream out in denial, but your lack of vocal range wouldn’t let you. Your throat was still sore from having a tube shoved down it. 

You heard Papyrus burst into the room, and turned your head to see that he was filled with life at the fact you were awake.    
  
Trista chuckled and put a hand on his shoulder.    
  
“Halt the spaghetti train, there. She has to start out with liquids and move up.” Trista put her hands in her white lab coat, reminding everyone the instructions of nursing you back to health, leaving a large packet of reminders before wishing everyone farewell, saying she’d be back to check on you every day, for a few months.    
  
“Goodbye, Sleeping Bea-uty!” Trista said, winking at you as she walked out of the room.

“why didn’t i think of that?” Sans chuckled half-heartedly. 

You looked over and begged Papyrus to leave the room so you could have a moment alone with Sans. 

As Papyrus shut the door, you looked over at Sans, tears forming in your eyes. You held out your pinky, your atrophied arms shaking as you held it up. 

 

Coughing, you did your best to speak.    
  
“Y-you made a...” you paused to wheeze in another breath, “promise.”

 

“yes i did, bea,” Sans wrapped his pinky around yours while holding your arm up, “and I plan on keeping it.”

You expected him to lean in and kiss you, but instead, he opted for pressing your hand to the side of his face. It was warm compared to how cold you felt due to the weight loss and the colder weather. You shrunk into your blankets.

“you’ve expended a lot of energy. we have a long day tomorrow. get some rest. we’ll wake you up for food and stuff.” Sans assured, looking at you with fondness in his eyes.    
  
“you better wake up too.” 

You just nodded. You were going to do this!   
__   
  
“I can’t do this!” You groaned as you were trying to eat Papyrus’s liquified spaghetti. You did your best to choke it down, but the second Papyrus walked out of the room to get more, your stomach decided it had enough and expelled your efforts all over Sans; spaghetti was not meant to be blended. .    
  
“Oh shit!” You yelled, which came out more as a pained whisper. 

“its fine,” sans replied, holding his clothes out in front of him and wiping stomach acid and blended noodle off of his face, “i’m gonna go shower…” 

That’s all it took for you to start crying again for the fifth time in the past week. Not only did you miss celebrating stuff with your favorite roommates, but you were just messing up left and right. You couldn’t really walk, you couldn’t speak much, you could barely even eat without ruining one of the skeletons’ clothes. 

“Bea?” Papyrus opened the door and came in, looking at you with apprehension and concern. He didn’t have another cup of pureed spaghetti in his hands. In fact, he was holding some tea, and a bowl of very creamy instant mashed potatoes. 

“Why no spaghetti?” You whispered in reply, taking the two items gladly.    
  
“I DIDN’T THINK IT WOULD BE GOOD FOR YOUR SENSITIVE STOMACH...AND IT OBVIOUSLY WAS NOT. I APOLOGIZE GREATLY. I DID NOT MEAN ANY HARM! I SIMPLY THOUGHT YOU'D ENJOY SOME SPAGHETTI TO CELEBRATE YOUR RECOVERY” Papyrus admitted, running a hand over the back of his skull--his apology seeping through your skin, touching your heart.    
  
“All is well.” You coughed, still sipping some tea.    
  
“GOOD. WOULD YOU BE UP FOR A MOVIE TONIGHT?” Papyrus inquired, wringing his hands together apprehensively, as if he was hiding something.    
  
Exhausting your voice, you resorted to nodding enthusiastically. Going to get up off of the bed, leaning on Papyrus, who held most of your body weight as you took very light steps into the livingroom. Once in there, you heard very large applause. 

In the livingroom, which you hadn’t even seen yet, was Sans, and behind him were all of the monsters you had healed. Congratulating you on waking up, wishing you well, and giving you light hugs and you received dramatic cheek kisses from Mettaton, which Sans wasn’t happy about in the slightest.

You giggled as you wriggled down onto your favorite decor in the house; your beanbag chair next to--a couch?!

You no longer had a cramped loveseat, but a black couch that could easily fit four people. 

Everyone sat around, on and near the couch and you, waiting for Papyrus to put the movie in.    
  
He gave a dramatic speech precluding it.    
  
“THIS IS THE FIRST MOVIE THAT BEA EVER REVEALED TO THE GREAT PAPYRUS. IT IS TOUCHING AND SWEET AND YOU ALL WILL LOVE IT I’M SURE! IT HOLDS MANY FOND MEMORIES, AND IT’S WHAT DROVE BEA TO PRESENT ME WITH THE BESTEST COMPANION EVER!”    
  
With that, Papyrus held up Boss Monster as if it was Simba from  _ The Lion King.  _

Teary eyed, he sat down, and you had to dry your own eyes as the theme from Milo and Otis began to play.    
  
Things were finally looking up.    
  
You were surrounded by all of your friends, your roommates--you looked at Sans, who was sitting on the floor beside you, hand intertwined with yours--and your boyfriend.    
  
You suddenly didn’t care about the holidays you’d miss.    
  
You had plenty of time to make up for it now that you were getting better. 


	22. Miraculous Mending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You go shopping! (and it's almost christmas?!)

It didn’t take long for you to recover, what with Sans, Papyrus, and Toriel all combining their healing magic to help you recover quicker. What should’ve been a six to eight month long recovery only took two weeks, and you were up and raring to go two days before Christmas Eve. You still walked a little funky, and you were pretty sure your vocal chords were going to be less than up to par for a long long time, but you were a lot better than you were. You didn’t need assistance in anything anymore, and you could eat solid food.   
  
You demanded a toasted ham and cheese sandwich with mayonnaise, which Papyrus was eager to cook for you. Gobbling it down, you turned to Papyrus and Sans, considering everyone else left a couple of days ago.    
  
“We should go Christmas shopping!” You smiled, grabbing the chair so you could stand yourself up.    
  
Sans and Papyrus shared a look.    
  
“we kind of--” “ALREADY DID THAT.”

Well then… new plans!    
  
“Well I need to get  _ you guys _ gifts, so one of you has to drive me to Wal-Mart!”

Sans stood up and volunteered, but how this affected Papyrus didn’t elude you. Motioning to Papyrus with your eyes, Sans got the hint.    
  
“you go ahead bro; you two haven’t gotten to spend much time together. have fun and i hope all bough-ds well,” he joked. The pun was terrible, but Papyrus groaned and you laughed anyways.    
  
“Thanks Sans! Be back shortly!”   
  
As you and Papyrus drove, you found yourself craving chocolate. Ugh you’d probably have to buy pads and tampons while you were here too. Which seemed strange because this seemed a week or so earlier than usual; your cycles were usually regular. 

Walking through the aisles, you decided to pick up some brand name chocolate.    
  
Why not? You deserved a treat! You grabbed a couple of Hershey’s bars and a Twix, walking toward the ice cream on your way. Cookie Dough ice cream looked good. You picked up a large container and put it in your cart. Pricing it all together, you knew for a fact you still had enough left in savings to get the gifts.    
  
Walking down the music aisle, you bought Sans an instrumental album made mainly of electronic elements and violin. Something that would make him think of the stars as he listened. You hoped he’d like it. As for Papyrus, you decided on more cat supplies, and a variety of scarves in all different colors.    
  
As Papyrus was still gift searching, you had the front desk lady wrap them for you; you chose the green and yellow striped gift wrap to spice things up, along with some blue and orange gift wrap too, which would be expected.   
  
Surprisingly, the front desk lady knew of you, asking if you were the local girl that was in the coma. You were a little taken aback that anyone knew you, but you did have a presence in this town, considering you’d lived there a while.    
  
“Yeah that’s me…” You shrugged, scratching the back of your head. Your voice was still scratchy.    
  
She rang everything up and then pulled money from her own purse and paid for your things, despite your insistence not to.    
  
“It’s the least I can do,” The woman said, coming around the corner to hug you, “Everyone in this town is glad you’re awake.” 

You held back tears as you nodded and stepped outside to wait for Papyrus.

As he stepped out, you noticed he had a couple of wrapped gifts in a plastic bag.    
  
You chuckled. So much for already buying gifts. As you got into the passenger seat of the ever so beloved convertible, you cracked into one your chocolate bars. 

It tasted so good as it melted in your mouth. Looking at Papyrus, you saw a gleam in his eye as he watched the road. 

“I’M GLAD TO SEE MY BROTHER HAPPY,” he began, his gaze turning serious as he glanced at you, “DON’T MESS THAT UP.”

You gulped, nodding vehemently as he turned his smiling face back to the road.   
__

As you set the gifts under the tree, you felt Sans wrap his arms around you from behind.    
  
“hey how are you holdin’ up?”

You turned and smiled, pushing him back a bit so that you could wrap your arms around his neck.    
  
“Pretty good. Didn’t know all of Grant Lake knew I was in a coma, so having my gifts paid for was shocking,” you answered, a smile gracing your features as you shyly looked down at your feet. Sans moved a hand to tilt your chin up.    
  
“good. love you.”

“Love you too, bonehead,” you said, leaning in to kiss him between the eyes. 

You broke the hug and mushiness to go sit on the couch, propping your feet up on the coffee table.    
  
“So, did you guys ever find out  _ why _ the game did what it did?” You asked, stretching your arms.

Sans’ expression went from happy to deadpan faster than you thought humanely possible. 

“uh….no?” 

Papyrus stepped out from the kitchen, where he was cooking something specially for you--fried chicken. 

“I HAVE TRIED CONTACTING MISTER TOBY FOX SEVERAL TIMES,” Papyrus said, “BUT TO NO AVAIL. HIS AGENT SAYS HE’S AWAY ON A VACATION.” 

You shook your head, hoping one day the mystery would be solved. Sans sighed, sitting beside you on the couch, laying his head in your lap as Papyrus brought food out to you.    
  
“ENJOY THE ‘NOT SPAGHETTI’.” Papyrus walked back into the kitchen, laughing as he served himself and Sans, giving Sans a bottle of ketchup to slather all over his chicken.

Turning on the TV, you flicked it over to a Christmas special that was one of your favorites.  _ The Santa Clause _ . The one with Tim Allen. You kept your eyes glued to the screen, glancing at the others as the movie continued to play. You could only hope they got as much of a kick out of it as you did when you were a kid.   
__   
  
They definitely enjoyed it. You even went into the kitchen a couple of times to make hot chocolate and neither of the skelebros noticed. You chuckled inwardly, loving the look on Sans’ face at ‘Santa’s’ antics. However, you weren’t expecting a serious discussion after the movie, and after Papyrus went to bed.    
  
“so, in these stories, the elves  _ choose _ to live underground?!”

“They aren’t exactly underground Sans. They can still go outside and stuff. They’re just confined to one area of the globe and--- okay I see what you mean.”

“why would they choose a life like that?”

“Christmas spirit?”

“whatever, i’m going to bed.”

“Sans! Wait!” You called, hoping he wouldn’t just leave in the middle of the conversation.    
  
He didn’t. He walked over to you and put his arms on your shoulders, leaning toward your forehead; you could’ve sworn you felt a very very smooth sensation similar to lips pressing to your forehead, but when Sans pulled away, you saw nothing.    
  
“goodnight, bea-utiful.” Sans sighed, hugging you. 

“Goodnight, Sans,” you laughed, kissing the side of his skull.    
  
Things were looking up


	23. An Aperture Science Enrichment Activity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wherein Sans makes something special for Papyrus for Christmas. For Science!

That night after shopping, as you were looking through your X-Box games and Steam games on your computer and on your television in your room, you heard someone open the door. Looking over, you saw a wide-eyed Papyrus, holding a game in his hand for the X-Box. Upon further examination, you saw that it was a copy of Portal 2. A grin stretching across your face, you sat Papyrus down.    
  
“Hey Papy, have you played the first one?”   
  
“YES! I USE SANS’ XBOX WHEN HE’S AT WORK AND WHEN I’M AT HOME. I HAVE PLAYED THIS ONE TOO. I LOVE THE PUZZLES! SANS PLAYS CO-OP WITH ME SOMETIMES...AND I WAS WONDERING IF YOU WANTED TO…?”

“Oh my God, Papyrus! Of course!”   
__   
  
Papyrus was much quicker at solving the puzzles than you were, but he was very patient with you, and he also had a tendency to talk a lot about GlaDOS.

“OTHER THAN THE FACT SHE’S SOULLESS AND DOWNRIGHT RUDE, I THINK WE WOULD GET ALONG WELL. WE BOTH LIKE PUZZLES!” 

“Oh yeah. You’re much nicer than GlaDOS.” 

“OF COURSE I AM. I’M THE GREAT PAPYRUS.”   


_ Not any less egotistical though,  _ You thought inwardly, laughing. 

You looked over and saw Sans at the door. You paused the game.    
  
“Paps, can you get me past one of Wheatley’s chambers in single player? I’m stuck.” 

“OF COURSE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING MAY I ASK?”   
  
“Sans seems to want my attention. Probably about what to get  _ you!”  _ You poked Papyrus’s raised bone above the nasal cavity playfully. Papyrus just laughed and shooed you away.    
  
You closed the door as you walked crookedly out.    
  
“‘Sup, bone boy?” You asked, a hand on your hip. 

“i wanted to show you what i built for papyrus. It’s gonna be weird, and probably contradictory of what you think of me, considering the whole flowey situation. but uh, just come see.”

You walked into Sans’ room and the only thing that struck you as odd was that it wasn’t as messy as you thought it would be. You scanned the room quickly, and almost stopped breathing when you saw what was laying on the desk beside Sans’ bed. 

An electronic voice came from it.    
  
“It is quite rude of you to stare. I am not happy about this either but I have standards.”

_ G-G-GlaDOS?! She looked almost exactly like--sounded like---same attitude. How did Sans…? _

“i’m making her for paps, because of how much he loves that game. she can’t do any harm. and with all the research i did on portal, i was able to even reconstruct her memories. she is a fully sentient ai, but she’ll have a very hard time adjusting.”

“Why?” You asked, incredulous that... _ GlaDOS... _ could have a hard time with anything. 

Her voice rang from the desk in that familiar electronic warble.    
  
“Because Aperture Science.. _ my facility... _ doesn’t exist. I thought even the dumbest of humans; maybe even _WHEATLEY_ could put that together. Apparently, I didn’t take into account there’d be someone as stupid as  _ you _ .” GlaDOS hissed, her optic flaring slightly with emotion that she couldn’t let out, for fear of frying her little potato home.    
  
“Will you eventually transfer her to a bigger model, Sans?”    
  
“eventually, but she’s easier to handle like this; that and this was the most i could program and code and everything in such a short time. paps found out about portal shortly before we moved in, and it takes a  _ really  _ long time to make something like her. even in a small scale. i also want to make a wheatley but--”   
  
GlaDOS wasted no time interrupting

**“DON’T YOU DARE.”**

That burst of emotion shorted her circuits. Sans had to laugh.

You took the opportunity of silence to give Sans a short kiss on the cheekbone before returning to Papyrus, whispering a curt ‘ _ he’ll love it _ ’ as you walked out the door and back to your room.    
  
As you walked in, you noticed that Papyrus had the game paused and was sketching something in a sketchbook-- he had a sketchbook?

You looked over his shoulder and saw that he was trying to draw Chell. It didn’t look bad, but it definitely wasn’t realism or anything. It was like a caricature of Chell more than anything. You had to smile. 

“Hey Paps!”   
  
He turned to you with a smile on his face and turned the page toward you.   
  
“I’M DRAWING THE TESTING HUMAN.” 

You snorted. That sounded like something an ill-informed GlaDOS would s--you really had to stop comparing Papyrus to GlaDOS. Papyrus was much better company than that soulless plant…   
  
_ Oh. That’s what Sans meant about his project for Paps being contradictory.  _

Chuckling, you leaned against Papyrus as you looked at all of his other drawings. They were all cartoonish in some way, except for his extremely technical drawing of a turret. 

  
“I WANT ALPHYS TO MAKE A TURRET THAT SHOOTS SPAGHETTI.” Papyrus said, a serious and determined look of stubbornness on his face. You chuckled to yourself and shoved Papyrus playfully.    
  
“Or we could continue in Co-op mode.”

“ACTUALLY BEA, I’D LIKE TO HELP YOU BEAT THE GAME, IF YOU DON’T MIND! I’D LIKE TO OBSERVE.”    
You smiled and took control of the controller.    
  
“You’re going down, Wheatley!” You began moving forward to the next test.

__   
  
You were stuck. It was late in the day, and in the game and you were  _ so _ close to Wheatley’s lair. You just...had to get there.    
  
“Paps…?” You asked tentatively, looking over your shoulder-- he was passed out on your bed. Asleep. 

Shaking your head and smiling fondly, you saved the game and shut it off. You covered Papyrus in a blanket and trudged over to Sans’ room and knocked tiredly. 

“i’m up.” you heard shuffling toward the door as it opened. “what’s up papy-- oh hey bea, you okay?” 

You nodded, looking back at GlaDOS as she was in some sort of sleep mode. On another desk, you saw a lot of electrical stuff in an arrangement that looked alot like GlaDOS’s original chassis. You grinned. Of course he’d begin to think about transferring her to something more...comfortable.    
  
“i was thinkin’ about conversing with the king about turning the underground into a replica of aperture to put her in. i wanna make a full sized supercomputer.”    
  
This time it was your turn to stop him.   
“ **DON’T YOU DARE!”** You growled, eyebrows furrowing as you stepped toward him.    
  
Sans sounded like he inhaled sharply, his left eye glowing blue, looking into your eyes in fear for a second before he finally said something. His eyes finally began returning back to normal.    
  
“get out, bea.” 

“If you were kidding, I’m sorry…” you backpedaled. Maybe you overreacted, but you didn’t want another soulless plant beneath the ground, well, soulless creature in general.    
  
“i said... **G e t  O u t!”** He said, his voice more demanding as he pushed you from his room using his magic.    
  
You collapsed outside his door. 

Was it something you did?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't really know, but should I add Portal to the fandom tags, or just the additional tags. It's still a Sans/Reader fic, but I just threw PotatOS in there cos like ugh i love portal don't hate me.


	24. Deck The Halls!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> NOT LITERALLY, PAPYRUS, GDI.

Christmas. 

How could you tell it was Christmas?

A furious smashing of skeletal bones into the wall. Well, through the wall into your room. 

“WHAT THE FUCK!?” you sat upright in bed, your heart racing.   
  
“I WAS LISTENING TO THAT SONG. DECK THE HALLS!” Papyrus replied. You could see the shock on his face through the hole in the wall.    
  
You could hear Sans laughter and could almost see him doubled over next to Papyrus, bellowing out so loudly you thought the neighbors would complain. 

You groaned in frustration as you opened your bedroom door.

“It means deck, as in decorate.” You trudged into the kitchen to get some hot chocolate. It was too early for this shit. 

As if on cue, Sans’ phone started to ring. You looked over at his approaching figure  as he answered it. He had to lean on the kitchen doorframe in order to support himself while he started laughing again. 

“alphys,your kidding me...yeah yeah, we’ll help fix it after we fix ours....yeah pap did it too...okay. pffff...mhm see ya soon....bye alph.” He could barely get the words out as he was still struggling for breath.   


You raised your mug to your lips and sipped. As long as you didn’t have to buy  _ their _ drywall, you’d be fine.    
  
“I...I’M TERRIBLY SORRY FOR PUNCHING A HOLE INTO THE WALL OF YOUR ROOM, BEA.” Papyrus twiddled his fingers together as he looked at you with desperate eyes. You couldn’t stay mad at that face. 

“Oh Pap, nothing some drywall, plaster, and paint can’t fix! I was planning on painting my room anyways. How’s your hand?” 

“IT STINGS A LITTLE, BUT IT’S NOTHING SOME TEA CAN’T FIX!” Papyrus beamed, going to the cupboard. You just chuckled.    
  
“Well, after drinks, let’s open presents and stuff.” You walked out of the kitchen, giving Sans a peck on the top of his skull before you exited to sit on your beanbag chair.

As you stared toward the kitchen, you couldn’t help wondering why Sans was so upset with you last night. He seemed fine now.

__   
  
Sans cringed as you went to kiss him, but he wouldn’t dare tell you that he knew that there was something up with your soul. He didn’t want to tell you what he saw in your eyes last night. Shaking his head, he decided to calm down and forget about it. Christmas is a time for happiness. 

He sat down on the couch beside you with a cup of coffee, and Papyrus went over to the tree while holding his mug of tea. He wondered if his brother was secretly british. He really liked tea. Shaking his head, Sans reminded himself not to stereotype...even if it did seem overwhelmingly accurate sometimes. Papyrus handed you a gift, and then handed one to Sans, and picked one of the ones up for himself. 

“WHO FIRST?” Papyrus asked, looking amongst the two of you.    
  
You shrugged and began ripping open wrapping paper, and Sans loved the gleaming look in your eye as you took in Papyrus’s gift. It was a potato. Not some potato battery, just a regular potato. You snorted as you picked it up, looking under it to see it was resting on top of a brand new blue hoodie. Tearing up, you looked up at Papyrus. Sans rubbed your back as you thanked Papyrus profusely. Sans just enjoyed watching you be happy...though, to be honest, he kind of wanted to piss you off to see if what he saw last night was just a trick of the light or not.    
_  
You can’t do that to her… good...partners?...don’t do that to each other.  _ Sans admonished himself. Ugh how could he be so cruel.   


He looked down at his gift and started to unwrap it, checking the tag and seeing Papyrus’s name. Smirking, he immediately started unwrapping, wondering if Papyrus got him anything interesting this year. Since Papyrus was no good with puns, Papyrus usually put jokes into his gifts, like with your new potato. Looking over, he could’ve sworn he saw you looking up how to make a potato battery. He snickered as he eyed the contents of the box beneath the wrapping paper. A ‘surface edition’ of Junior Jumble, an actual button down shirt with “lazy brother” in comic sans  _ hand-embroidered _ on the pocket, and, if your smiling face was anything to go by, Undertale merch. Or in this case, a pin with Sans face on it in pixel art. Looking up at Papyrus and elbowing you, he uttered his thanks and waited patiently for Papyrus to open his gift.    
  
“SANS IF THIS IS ANOTHER WOOPIE CUSHION I WILL PERSONALLY EVICT YOU.” Papyrus warned, opening the lazily wrapped box. 

As the top came off of the box, Papyrus’s eyes grew wide. He held up in his hands that soulless potato A.I. 

“Wowie…” Papyrus whispered, holding it up reverently.    
  
“Oh, you must be Papyrus,” GlaDOS said in monotone, “I can finally move out of that...pigsty.” 

“I’M GLAD SOMEONE AGREES THAT SANS SHOULD CLEAN HIS ROOM MORE.” Papyrus nodded, his eyes filling with tears as he hugged the potato close. 

“THIS IS THE BEST GIFT EVER SANS. THANK YOU.” Papyrus looked at GlaDOS with levity, “DO NOT WORRY SANS, BEA, AND GLADOS, I WILL NOT TAKE ANYTHING THIS POTATO SAYS TO HEART. FOR SHE IS JUST LIKE FRISKS FLOWER FRIEND.” 

Sans snorted and you laughed.    
  
It was all Sans could do to keep from calling Alphys and telling her what Papyrus just said.    
  
He knew Alphys would ship GlaDOS and Flowey in an instant.    
  
Speaking of which, Sans still had to tell you about the huge dinner at Tori’s tonight...

“Does this lanky skeleton know how to be quiet?”    
  
Everyone ignored the potato.    


___  
  
You stood up, putting your gift from Papyrus to the side, and grabbing more presents from beneath the tree. All that was left was a gift from Sans to you, you to Sans, and you to Papyrus. Smiling, you handed each of them their gifts, and watched Papyrus open his first. 

“WOWIE. LOOK AT THIS!” Papyrus pulled all of the scarves out of your wonderfully wrapped box, and put them all on at once. From the smaller box inside, with the green and yellow wrapping paper--which you could’ve sworn Sans’ hand clenched upon seeing--Papyrus took out the cat toys.    
  
“THANK YOU BEA” Papyrus said, giving you a high five before leaning forward, elbows resting on his knees to look at Sans.    
  
Sans chuckled and started to carefully unwrap his blue box, taking out the music album. He looked at the cover and saw all of the galaxy and space stuff on it, and looked over at you with questioning eyes.    
  
Embarrassed, you answered, your face turning red.    
  
“I-I thought that you’d like ambient music for when w-we go st-stargazing.” You stuttered, looking into your lap. 

“thanks. i’m sure i’ll enjoy it. besides, i wouldn’t let 14 dollars go to waste.” 

You looked at Sans, eyes wide.    
  
“How did you--?”   
  
“--you left the price sticker on the cd cover.” 

Face-palming you looked toward your gift from Sans. It was in a small box, but nonetheless, you knew it’d probably be really heartfelt. Or, at least you  _ hoped _ it’d be heartfelt.    
  
Opening the small box, you gasped at what was inside. It was labradorite, a yellow and blue crystal that you couldn’t help but gawk at. It was in the shape of a heart, and because it was a crystal it looked  _ exactly _ how your yellow and blue soul would’ve looked, had those been your soul's primary colors; it was a bit smaller, at about the size of a walnut. It brought you to tears. Lifting it up, you noticed it was attached to a sturdy cord that fit over your neck and hung right in the center of your chest.    
  
“Sans, it’s beautiful…” You rasped, voice raw with emotion.    
  
“just like you…” he whispered, leaning against you. 

God, he couldn’t get any sweeter, could he. 

Still, you were worried about what had gone through him last night...   
  
“IF YOU’RE DONE BEING MUSHY I WOULD LIKE TO START GETTING READY TO GO TO TORIELS.”   
  
Wait what?   


“bro you have like 4 hours.”   
  
“THAT IS FOUR HOURS I COULD SPEND GETTING READY. AND CHOOSING WHICH OF THESE MARVELOUS SCARVES TO WEAR TONIGHT. MAYBE I’LL GO WITH THE GREEN ONE…” His sentence trailed off as he shut the door to his room.    
  
Laughing, you lay your head on Sans’ shoulder.    
  
“Thank you so much,” you said, eyes lifted up to look at his face, He tilted his head toward you and kissed your forehead. You felt lips--you still didn’t see them. Weird.    
  
“anything for you.” Sans, said, leaning his head over yours.    
  
“I have to meet everyone tonight don’t I…” You shuddered.    
  
“yup. hope you like crowds.”    
  
“I don’t.”   
  
“well neither do i so we’re in luck. if you need out of there, tori’s house has a deck with swinging couch thingies and a fire pit, so if it feels cramped, you can join me outside.”    
  
“Awesome. Thank you Sans.” You said, kissing his cheekbone.    
  
“no problemo.”

"You two are disgusting," chimed in GlaDOS.

Once again ignoring the poor excuse for a potato battery, both you and Sans fell asleep like that on the couch.   


And you both woke up literally an hour and a half before the party.   
  
It was an hour drive there.  
  
And Papyrus  _insisted_ GlaDOS have the front seat...


	25. Poultry, Plants, and Plot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You go to a Christmas party and Sans gets a Christmas surprise at the end! :D

You and Sans still sat in the backseat, even though the front seat was open. You grabbed a can of Dr. Pepper from your little snack pack (you hated driving without snacks), and tossed it back. When you brought the can away from your mouth, you looked over at Sans, a dribble of soda still dripping from your chin. Wiping it away, you smiled.    
  
Sans just laughed and made a grabby motion with his hand, silently asking for something from the little backpack you kept the snacks and stuff in. Rolling your eyes, you held up a squeeze bottle of ketchup, or a squeeze-bear of honey. He opted for the honey and downed half of the bear-bottle in one go. He turned to you, grinning, a little honey still on his teeth. You swiped at the bear and put a dab on your tongue, tasting the sweet, sticky honey as you pushed it around your mouth a little.    
  
Sans’ grin grew and he put his arm around you, You leaned your head on his shoulder and looked up at the sky. This was going to be a marvelous Christmas. You just hoped everyone would like you. 

Maybe they’d even like GlaDOS, because despite her tough exterior, you could’ve sworn GlaDOS was in awe of being...rather  _ free  _ up on the surface, away from Aperture. Her optic widened as Papyrus duct taped her to the dash and she got to watch the road unfold in front of her, along with all the sights as everyone headed to Toriel’s.

__

As you pulled into the large driveway that ended in a fancy roundabout, you looked out the window to gawk at the large estate that Toriel had somehow managed to procure. Upon further examination, you heard Sans whispering to you that Toriel and Asgore both put in the funds to get this...mansion.

Did that mean they lived together? You shrugged, stepping out of the door, helping Papyrus and Sans with their gifts for everyone into the house. You were the last one to step inside, where Toriel was by the door to greet you. She took your gifts and lay them beneath the tree. 

“Hello my chi--, uh, Bea, right? Hello Bea. Welcome to our humble home. Please make yourself comfortable. Dinner will start soon.” Toriel greeted.

She waved you off to a large Ottoman and a bunch of other comfortable chairs, which were seating a crap ton of other monsters, all of whom you knew from when you gave them some soul.   
  
“Hi guys!” You shouted, walking up to them.    
  
“GROUP HUG!!!” You heard Undyne yell. 

Oh shit...you forgot how much you hated large groups of people. 

As you were smothered at all sides by everyone you’d helped, you felt less loved and more suffocated. It took quite a bit of begging for them to break away. Looking down, you saw Frisk, who was looking up at you curiously. You were breathing raggedly and your eyes darted everywhere but toward Frisk’s hazel eyes. They’re inisistent gaze finally lured you in and you held eye contact.    
  
They held their arms out for a hug, and you received it, their head laying against your chest. Sighing, you wrapped your arms around them. They hugged you tighter, so you stood up to carry them. Their laughter was contagious. 

“Thank you for helping my friends!” They signed, leaning back. Well, at least that’s what you thought they said, from the little bits of ASL you’d been teaching yourself. 

“Of course, kid,” You replied, rubbing their back as you held them, “any friend of yours is a friend of mine!”

Everyone watched the encounter with fond eyes, smiling. Suddenly, Toriel’s voice rang from the dining-room, sounding the dinner alarm. Walking out of the living-room and setting Frisk down, your eyes became the same size as the dinner plates at the sight of all of the food. There was a turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, and other foods you hated or didn’t care for, plus a few new dishes. Toriel allowed everyone to sit down and then asked a question. 

“Is anyone here religious, and if so, would they like to say grace? We wouldn’t want them to feel uncomfortable.” She looked pointedly at you with questioning eyes.    
  
Without embarrassment, but not wanting to lie, you nodded. You hadn’t gotten to give thanks for a large meal like this in a long time.    
  
So, you said a quick prayer, which everyone applauded, and then dug in.    
  
_ And the food was delicious.  _

You tossed the food into your mouth quickly and stuffed your stomach quite full by the end of the meal. Everyone also seemed to want to hang around for the rest of the night, so you made your way to the back porch deck thing. As you looked, you noticed nobody was out there, and lowered yourself onto a porch swing, pushing yourself back and forth. After a while, Sans poked his head out and looked at you. 

“you okay bea?” he asked, sitting beside you.    
  
“Yeah. Just a little stuffy.”    
  
Sans nodded, looking up at the cloudy sky, specifically at the moon. You peeked inside and saw GlaDOS talking to Flowey, who was in a very decorative flower pot. You smirked, leaning back. You hoped the party would die down so you could go home, but you were also glad to get to hang out with everyone. You just wished it wasn’t so...loud. 

“Sans?” You whispered. 

“yeah?”   
  
“I love you.”

“and i love you.”

“Merry Christmas.”   
  
“merry christmas.”

___

By the time everyone was opening presents, you had fallen asleep outside, so Frisk came to wake you.    
  
“Mm...what.” You groaned, rolling over, causing the porch swing to swing. You fell off.    
  
“Agh!” You scrambled to your feet and looked down at Frisk, who was laughing. Rubbing your hand along the back of your head, you grinned and thought about how embarrassing that must have been, while walking back inside, where everyone was sitting in a circle around the large christmas tree. Asgore, who you hadn’t really seen at dinner because you were too busy stuffing your face, was seated next to Toriel; Frisk ran over to them and sat in Asgore’s lap, playing with his beard. 

“Ah! Now we can begin distributing presents.” Toriel and Asgore said, simultaneously. They then looked at each other. Asgore had a grin as wide as the grill of a semi, and Toriel had a harsh glare.    
  
That’s awkward.    
  
Toriel and Asgore grabbed presents and began handing them out, and you were shocked to find that there were quite a few addressed to you. Tearing up, you thanked everyone and began to unwrap the beautifully wrapped gifts that you had graciously been given.    
__   
  
It was 11:46pm. You were finally back in your own bed, all of your gifts splayed around you. You took a bite of the baked potato in front of you (making good use of the gift Papyrus gave you), looking through an old book about souls from Toriel.    
  
_ How practical… _ you thought, chuckling as you flipped the pages, skimming. 

Suddenly, you heard knocking at your door.    
  
“Come in!”    
  
Sans stepped inside and closed the door behind him, opting to sit on the bed behind you and proceed in giving your shoulders a massage.    
  
“Ahhh, Sans you’re the best.” You groaned, slumping down so your head landed in your criss-crossed lap, hair splayed a little bit onto your legs.    
  
“nah,” he retorted simply, following up with a question, “what was your favorite gift?”

You sorted through everything until you finally stumbled across what Frisk had gotten you-- a green shirt with a large yellow stripe in the middle.   
  
“I really like this. I don’t know why, because green has never really been my color, but the yellow was pretty. I figure if my hair wasn’t blonde I could pull it off better.” You held up a bottle of brown hair dye. “I was thinking I could change up my style a little bit.”   
  
Sans froze in the middle of the massage and when he did continue it was rigid and rough.   
  
“i think you look fine the way you are.” Sans moved his hands to your mid back, where your muscles were the most tight.   
  
“Thanks Sans,” You said, tossing the hair dye into the closet, where you could forget about it.   
  
You tilted your head back to look at him, hoping to see a smile, and when you did, you felt something grip your vocal chords, and you couldn’t speak. However, you did hear something come out of your mouth. And it was your voice. But you didn’t say it.   
  
“I kind of liked being a blonde anyway. Nice to know you agree, **Smiley Trashbag**.”


	26. Demons have Standards

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You interact with your hellspawn brain mate, and Sans cuddles <3

Your eyes filled with tears and as you heard the painful words pour from your mouth. As your mouth continued to speak, you also found you could still move your extremities and other facial features; they only stole your mouth and vocal chords. Good.    
  
Your eyes searched his sockets, and his flaming blue left eye met your pained ones, and the malleable bone above his eyes furrowed together as the sarcastic and spiteful words your voice was emitting contrasted the obvious pain and fear you were expressing, gripping hard onto his shirt.    
  
You could hear his magic crackling and you were scared. You tried to communicate to Chara using your thoughts.    
  
_ Please stop! I can just walk out of this room!  _ You made to get up,  __ So I beg you, Chara, PLEASE GET OUT.  
__  
You heard your voice echo back to you.   
  
“Fine. Have your way. First it’ll be your thoughts, then your voice. Soon I’ll have your whole body, then you’re entire sense of self, anyways. Good luck, you  __ idiots. ”

With a shudder and a screech, you screamed.   
  
“SAAANSSS!!!” You bawled, clinging to him for support as you looked up at his face, where blue tears were streaming down the white bone, his eye sockets dark and lifeless. 

____   
  
As you had screamed his name in anguish, looking up at him, Sans watched as your eyes turned from red to their original baby blue, a sigh on his lips as you cried into his shirt. He couldn’t breathe, well...if he had lungs. He was in shock. Actually, that was fading more into anger. He thought Frisk had Chara  _ under control _ ! He rubbed your back absentmindedly. He then remembered Frisk giving you the sweater, the green and yellow wrapping paper, the chocolate, the apprehension of meeting Asgore during the Christmas party. It all made sense. Chara probably took a little bit of control of Frisk’s thoughts to plant the old sweater into Bea’s hands.    
  
As he thought all of this out, he felt you releasing the grip. As he looked back down at you, seeing his pinprick pupils slowly fading back into existence in the reflection of your eyes, he noticed that you had stopped crying and you were asking him a question.    
  
“wassup?” he asked, focusing himself on  _ your _ wellbeing. 

“Are you...okay?” You asked, your voice still wavering and unstable. 

“eh, been better. i didn’t think i  _ possessed  _ the ability to be happy anyway.” Sans joked grimly, realizing that his one shot at happiness was being ripped away from him again, by Chara.

“Maybe I can hold them back?”   
  
“your soul is still recovering. it’s weak. they have easy access to it.” Sans shrugged, his shoulders drooping afterwards.

You groaned and leaned your head in your hands. Sans hated to see you like this. But he also hated that right now, loving you meant loving Chara, and he didn’t think he could do that. Sighing, he rolled his head back to stretch and relax.    
  
“lets see your soul. it should have its primary colors and flecks of chara...if i remember right.”

“What color is Chara?”   
  
“black.” 

He watched as you nodded, and he tugged at your soul, his eyes widening in awe and shock. You’re soul was almost blinding, that was how brilliant it was. Absolutely pure  _ white.  _ Unfortunately, that also made it extremely easy to see the severity Chara’s possession. Your white soul was absolutely littered with little black spots everywhere. Your seven month coma really allowed for them to come in and gain some traction. 

“W-White?” You whispered? 

Sans pushed your soul back in and held you close.    
  
“pure love, bea. you’re pure love.”    
  
And for a split second, he thought that if anyone could save Chara in any capacity, it’d be you. 

___   
  


You curled up into Sans as he rubbed your back. You were so freaking exhausted from all that shock and bawling and soul stuff. You didn’t think you could be more exhausted than you were right now.    
  
Crawling away, you tucked yourself beneath your covers, all of your gifts still lying on the bed. Sans went to leave.   
  
“Wait,” you rasped, reaching for him with one arm.    
  
He walked back to you.    
  
“Stay.”

He nodded and lay down next to you, running his hand through your hair, scratching your scalp. You let out a satisfied mewl as you pressed yourself next to him, basking in the magic energy that radiated off of him, like body heat. You hoped like hell Chara wouldn’t sabotage any of this for you.    
  
Sans wrapped his arm around you and pressed it protectively over your stomach, drawing you even closer to him. 

You sighed happily. 

You could get used to this.    
  
**_Fat chance_ ** _. _ A small voice whispered in the back of your head.    
  
You kept yourself from reacting.    
  
_ Goodnight, Chara.  _ You thought.    
  
Maybe you could save them with kindness. 

Yeah. 

____

  
Waking up was a doozy. You didn’t expect Sans to be gone when you woke up. You looked around for a note, or a text message, or anything, but you found nothing on the bed. Not even your presents. They seemed to have been organized and put away. Huh. 

“Papyrus!” You called, walking out of your room.

“YES BEA? HOW WAS YOUR SLEEP?” Papyrus asked, turning towards you from the couch.

Walking into the livingroom, you noticed that Papyrus was sitting on the couch cuddling an almost full grown Boss Monster. You pet the kittens head. 

“It was good, oh Boss, you’re such a big boy…Have you seen Sans?” you said, tearing up.    
  
You missed so much when you were in that coma.

“THAT’S GOOD, YES. HE IS, AND SANS SAID HE HAD TO GO TALK TO FRISK AND TORIEL ABOUT SOMETHING. ” Papyrus handed the cat off to you. 

  
That made sense, but you wished you had gotten a note.    
  
Taking the cat into your arms, you suddenly realized...   
  
“He...hasn’t been fixed,” you said, a little bit of horror seeping into your tone.    
  
“NO. I’VE BEEN CONSIDERING MAKING MONEY BY BREEDING HIM.”    
  
You choked on spit.    
  
“Holy shit, Paps!” You popped your back and handed the cat back to Papyrus, “That’s awesome!”

Papyrus just agreed and continued scrolling on his iPad? When had he gotten that? It was about cat breeding. 

Huh.    
  
Walking into the kitchen, you felt a pull in your mind toward the knives. Rolling your eyes, you shot a mental glare at where you thought Chara was in your mind. 

That made the pull quit and you went to the fridge and grabbed the ice cream, making a little cup of it for yourself. Putting the cup into the freezer, you walked into the living-room with the entire tub.

**_Fling a spoonful onto his face_ ** **,** Chara chimed. 

_ No,  _ you retaliated,  _ for one, that’s incredibly rude, and two, I’m not listening to you.  _

You felt a fingertip twitch very minutely. Holding back laughter at how weak Chara was, you raised the spoon to your lips, just for them to twitch again, enough for you to get a little bit on your nose.    
  
You rolled your eyes.    
  
_ Reaaaal mature.  _ You laughed mentally, working on controlling your own body more, imagining a comfy room for soul-brain Chara to inhabit while you did your thing.  __  
__  
**_Huh. Frisk just put me in the equivalent of a play-pen. A box. WOAH A TV!_ ** ****_  
_ ****_  
_ You laughed. That ought to keep them busy for a while.  
  
**_Hey. I’m a demon with standards._ ** ****_  
_ ****__  
That just made you laugh harder.    
  
“WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING AT?”  Oops.

But you had an idea. 

“Hey Paps, would you ever date a girl who acted like Sans?”    
  
“NEVER! I’M A SKELETON WITH STANDARDS!” 

**_You’re gonna pay for that._ ** **  
****  
** You just scooped another spoonful of ice cream into your face.    
  
Suuuuure you would. 


	27. Sanity Slip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A fight is made up.

Everything felt overwhelming as New Year's approached. You and Sans started getting on each others nerves, Papyrus was getting a bit quieter than usual (but not by much), and you were pretty sure you were on the edge of another one of your mental breakdowns. You just hoped you and Sans weren’t still fighting when that happened.   
  
It started like this.  
**______  
  
** **** _It was December 27th; two days after Christmas._ _  
_ _  
_ _Sans had walked into the kitchen to grab something; you could hear him moving things in the shelves and closing cupboard doors. He was being rather rough with them._ _  
_ _  
_ _“Hey Sans, could you be more gentle with the doors?” You had asked, looking at him and seeing dark around his sockets. He had looked worn down._ _  
_ _  
_ __“yeah sure fine”

_ “Love you!” You had called after him.  _ _   
_

_ “k,” he had responded.  _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “Don’t you love me?” you had asked, insecurities rising since Chara had gotten into the habit of making you feel inferior. _ _   
_ _   
_ __ “can’t love a demon.” He’d said. 

_ ____ _

You were in the kitchen at midnight again. Checking your phone, you saw that it was the 29th. So close to New Years. Sighing, you reached for the tea kettle while getting some tea from a high shelf. There were bags beneath your eyes from some of Chara’s nightmares that had mixed into your own bad dreams. You stared at the ceiling and when you heard a pop behind you, it took everything in you not to cry. 

He scuffled around. Not saying anything.    
  
“Waiting on tea?” You asked, your love for him drowning out any ideas you had of giving him the cold shoulder. You love easy. Guess the overwhelming white of your soul made sense…   
  
He didn’t respond, so when you turned around, it was just in time to see him quit nodding.    
  
“Okay well it’ll be a few. Do you want to talk?”    
  
Nothing. Well, you tried. You looked at him and saw him signing something alphabetically with his hand at his side. You subtly watched that hand from the corner of your eye.    
  
**_He’s conflicted._ ** Chara’s young presence pervaded your mind. You pushed Chara back and went to wipe tears from your eyes.    
  
“bea…” his voice almost made you scream.    
  
Your heart may have been pure love, but that didn’t mean you weren’t angry.    
  
“No, Sans…” You whispered.   
  
“what?”   
  
“I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want you to tell me that you can’t love me just because Chara decided to be an asshole.”

**_How rude._** You clenched your fists at Chara’s outburst; but not without respecting the reference... 

“I don’t want to hear you justify calling  _ me  _ a demon.  _ I’m _ not the demon, Sans!  _ I’m _ not the monster here! You are! And for once, you’re finally acting like one! I’m not going to listen to you justify breaking my heart,” You whispered harshly--watching your eyes in the reflection of kitchen appliances behind him--Your eyes were all blue. It was  _ all  _ you. You don’t know if that made you feel better about what you just said, or worse. 

With that, the tea kettle whistled. You poured his mug and your mug, put his tea in, and yours, dressed them, and let them steep. Staring into his eyes the whole time and watching his facial expressions shift. You couldn’t tell if he was upset, angry, confused, or hurt; you guessed he didn’t know either.

“I love you.” You handed him his mug. 

“I…” He trailed off.    
  
That was all you needed to power your feet into walking back to your room. 

For the first time in over a year, you called Neiko.   
___  
  
“Hey Lantern Girl!” His warm voice greeted you.   
  
“Oh my god, don’t tell me you still have my ringtone set to that song.” You chuckled, your last name being lantern in Irish, was cool, so a long time ago Neiko had found a song you’d like. Lantern Girl by David Ross MacDonald.   
  
You told him that you and Sans were fighting.   
  
“No wonder he’s been in here so much the last couple of days...” Neiko yawned.   
  
Oh yeah, Neiko worked at Grillby’s.   
  
“Yeah, I just… I love him so much and I don’t know what to do.”   
  
You heard the sharp intake of breath on the other end. 

“Bea, remember our first fight?”   
  
“Yeah, Neeks, you threw me into the swimming pool and waterlogged my phone. Jerk.”  
  
Neiko laughed, causing you to laugh too.   
  
“And how did we work it out?” Neiko pushed.   
  
“We went on a picnic with your sister and brother in law. And we had fun. To forget about why we fought.”   
  
“That’s right. Do something fun with Sans. Now is that the only reason you called? When are we going to hang out? I miss ya, bea-utifull!”   
  
You groaned, smile stretching wide.   
  
“Yeah, but I was hoping that we could chat for a bit?”   
  
“Yeah, but I’m calling time at 2am.”   
  
“Deal.”  
___  
  
Sans sat outside your door and listened to you and Neiko talk. Even though he couldn’t understand everything that was said, you sounded like you were enjoying yourself.   
  
Sans put his head in his hands. It’s his fault that he’s losing you now. You were right. _YOU_ weren’t the demon. Ugh, he had royally fucked up this time and now he was going to run you back to your ex.   
  
Then he’d have to see you _and Neiko_  at Grillby’s and that’d be a pain. 

He just had to figure everything out and talk all of this out with you before you came to your senses and ditched him like a pile of old bones. 

  
_Heh._   
___   
  
When you hung up, you felt really relieved and a lot less angry. Maybe you and Papyrus would go build snowmen tomorrow up in the mountains.    
  
That sounded like a plan. 

Tiredly, you stretched your back and fell back onto your bed. Tomorrow was a new day and you were going to get Sans to love you again. You were still hurt, but hopefully you could get all of that doubt out of that thick skull of his. 

“Goodnight Chara.” You said. 

**_Goodnight, Bea._ **

**“** Goodnight Sans…” You whispered.

Nothing.

___   
  
When you woke up, you were in the kitchen.    
  
“What the fuck…?” you whispered to yourself. It was about 4am, and there was a knife in your hands. The chef’s knife. In other words, the big knife.    
  
**_I’ve never seen a knife this big…Just daggers._ ** Chara said in awe.   
  
“You’re not going to get to use it,” you snapped.

You tried to move you hands, but you couldn’t. Luckily you could still use your legs and most of your arm range. The most Chara could do was flop your wrists as you held your arms out in front of you. It was kind of comical actually. You heard a floorboard creak, but when you looked out to the living-room, you were relieved to see that nobody was there. Suddenly there was a pop behind you and Sans was holding the knife and putting it back into the knife block. Sweat was beading on his skull. 

Chara gave you your hands back.   
  
“They only have my voice and hands at this point. They’re progressing quickly.” You informed him, your tone even. You were still upset, but glad he’d taken the knife from you. 

“what’re we gonna do about that?” Sans asked, a hand on your back. You shrugged him off.

  
“Lock me up until my soul’s healing pushes them out.” You said decisively, upset that this would ruin any snowman building plans... 

Sans nodded solemnly, and you turned to him, cupping his skull in your hands.    
  
“Hey bonehead, last chance...I love you.”    
  
“I love  _ you _ , Bea.” He replied, relief spreading across his face, pressing his skull to your forehead.    
  
Tears welled in your eyes as Sans teleported you to his room, where he already had a makeshift bed in the corner for you, with some stuffed animals. As you sat there, he surrounded you in a cage of bones. Permanent.    
  
You smirked.    
  
“Kinky.”   
  
“hush. it’s just so i can keep an eye-socket on you.”

You laughed and curled up in this little cell. You’d be fine. As long as Sans remembered to feed you.    
  
You snickered a bit at that thought, and with that, you proceeded to sleep.    
  
How would Sans explain this to Papyrus in the morning?


	28. Soul to Soul

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You and Papyrus have a little heart to heart.

If you weren’t scared before, you were now. With each passing day, Chara gained more and more control of your body. Luckily, it wasn’t easy to break out of Sans’ bone prison. It also wasn’t easy to keep Papyrus from breaking you out, though. However, each passing day, it did become easier for you and Sans to convince Papyrus to keep you inside, saying that your soul was unhealthy and you didn’t want to do anything stupid. Papyrus eventually accepted it and moved on, accommodating you when he could. 

By the time this was achieved, Chara could already control all of your motor functions. You couldn’t bargain for anything and the only way you could show someone that you were listening, or that you cared, was by trying everything in your power to take your eye-color back. 

The problem was that even though Chara would control you some of the time, their mannerisms still pervaded into your own personality. It was tough, to say the least, to differentiate between what was  _ you _ , and what was  _ Chara. _

On one of your better days, you were really hungry and Sans hadn’t come in almost all day. It was New Year’s Day.

“Sans…” You called, voice raw from crying.    
  
You heard nothing.    
  
“Sans!” You tried, a bit louder this time.    
  
“bea?” He crept in, a laptop open to a video that wasn’t playing.    
  
“I miss you” you coughed, scooting toward the bones.    
  
He nodded and turned the laptop toward you, putting the mouse between the bars of your bone cell. You clicked play.   
  
If you thought you were done crying, you were utterly wrong. Sans had put together a new years video that was compiled of all of the new years fireworks from the night before. You couldn’t contain your happiness.    
  
“This is so great.” You whimpered, beaming up at Sans, your blue eyes searching his for some hint of satisfaction.    
  
When the lights of his eyes grew brighter as they met your own eyes, you couldn’t help but reach a hand through the bar, which he took and held gingerly. You had to be careful though. You didn’t want Chara to take control and try to crush his hand. Taking a deep breath, you curled onto the makeshift bed and held your hands to your stomach.    
  
“What’s for food?” You asked, your stomach grumbling.    
  
“chicken.” Sans held a hand up to one of the bones.    
  
You just licked your lips and nodded as Sans went back out of the room. Maybe to help Paps with cooking. Before you knew it, however, Papyrus was in the room with you, kneeling down to look into your eyes.    
  
“Bea.” His voice was level. As if it was his natural voice. It showed no signs of strain or cracking, as his ‘normal’ voice did. It caught you off guard, and he didn’t stop. It wasn’t like that one time after Muffet's, when he was exhausted. Then, his voice was just a quiet version of his loud, boisterous one. His voice now? It sounded...completely different. It was as if Peter Hollens’ singing voice was transformed into something to speak with. It was scary.   
  
“If there was something Sans was keeping from me…  _ you _ were keeping from me… would you tell me at some point?” 

You gulped, looking away. 

“It depends Papyrus.” It was your turn to look at him in the eye.    
  
“How long have you been pretending to be happy for everyone?”

You saw his gaze temporarily cast down to the floor.   
  
“Ever since we lost our…” Papyrus seemed to struggle for words, looking at his hands. He took his red scarf off and fiddled with it. You saw a large gold ‘G’ embroidered on the inside. “Our ‘dad’.”

You theorized he may have been talking about Gaster, I mean, it was obvious. 

“I don’t recall his name, but I do remember how he looked. The way he was. I wasn’t that far away when the ‘accident’ occurred, when we lost him.” His eyes began to water. 

“Papyrus you don’t have to tell--”

You didn’t expect him to snap.    
  
“Maybe if I share something important with you, you’ll stop pretending everything’s  _ fine. _ ”

You scooted back in your cell. When Papyrus was serious, he was scary.

“Anyways, Sans was a lot closer to the accident then I was, so it must have affected him more. He remembers Dad’s name, while I only have the letter ‘G’ to go by. Fuck, I even hear him mumbling about resets. I mean, damn. I remember them too, except I only remember bits and pieces of them, while he remembers the entire thing. But I’m not  _ STUPID. _ As long as Sans and I live, we’ll always have reasons to care about each-other. He’ll be lazy. I’ll be naive. But it doesn’t mean it’s not genuine either. I  _ do _ get excited. I  _ do _ enjoy everyone’s company. And I  _ am _ a bit narcissistic. But being...like this…” He gestured to all of himself, “reminds him of Dad. So I’ll be the naive younger brother. At least until it’s time for the charade to end.”

You had let him monologue, and because you didn’t want to interrupt him, you had let Sans walk into the room mid-speech. 

“i’d say it’s time now.”   
  
“S-SANS!”

“oh give it up, paps.” Sans sighed, crying.

“IT’S NOT LIKE I’M FAKING IT, BROTHER. JUST...AMPING IT UP?”

You tried to laugh at that, but it didn’t work. 

“Can you guys take this argument outside of the room?”   
  
“of course babe. be back soon with dinner.”   
  
You just nodded and watched them walk out, bickering.    
  
Groaning, you wondered if there was a way you could’ve prevented all of this.    
  
You needed to push Chara out of you. 

__   
  
Every day, you did exercises to push back Chara’s pervading presence in your soul. Every day you had Sans pull your soul out to see if it was working. 

And ever so slowly, those black spots very very slowly began to fade. But not enough for Chara to relinquish control just yet. It was Valentine’s day and you were having a rough day. One where Chara tried to escape the cage by breaking bones again.    
  
“happy valentines day beautif--” 

“Hah! Nice to know you thought of me, Trashbag.” Chara said, using your voice. You inwardly rolled your eyes. They were really starting to try your patience. You heard Papyrus come in to the apartment.    
  
“I’M BACK WITH VALENTINE’S TREATS FOR EVERYONE!” You heard him call.    
  
You were so happy that he stayed the bubbly Papyrus you once knew. He and Sans had agreed on Papyrus only being serious when he  _ had _ to be. You guessed it worked. Wouldn’t want Papyrus to break character. However, knowing his secret did cause him to...curse a lot more than usual, seeing as he didn’t have to act  _ completely _ naive anymore.    
  
Walking into the room, seeing your body lashing out as your blue eyes begged for help. He dropped the bag and narrowed his sockets.    
  
“FOR FUCKS SAKE, CHARA, CAN’T THE GREAT PAPYRUS ENJOY THIS HOLIDAY WITH BEA INSTEAD OF DEALING WITH YOU?” 

Oh that’s another thing you and Sans had opened up to Papyrus about. It actually helped the brothers’ relationship tremendously, opening up to each other. 

Having Chara in control of your body wasn’t all bad though. It gave you a chance to practice taking control back. You started with your vocal chords, since that’s one of the ways Chara began controlling you. Success!   
  
“Okay Chara, you need to quit.” You grumbled as they slammed your full body weight into the bones for the umpteenth time. 

“Thanks for the candy--oompf!--Papyrus!” You grunted as you tried to take control of your hands.    
  
Another success. You planted them on the bars behind you so that Chara couldn’t get a running start at anything.    
  
“you’re getting better” Sans commented, grabbing a chocolate from the bag Papyrus dropped and popping it into his mouth.    
  
You felt your mouth watering and you knew it was just Chara wanting chocolate.    
  
“Give them one.” You said, rolling your eyes.    
  
Sans obliges, smirking, tossing one into the air, over the bones, and Chara tilted your body back to catch it in your mouth. While they were distracted doing that, you took the opportunity to seize back the rest of your body for at least the next hour while Chara grumbled in the back of your mind.    
  
“Okay, so let’s watch a Valentine’s Day movie before they decide to be  _ posessive  _ again.” You stammered.    
  
With a groan from Papyrus and a hearty laugh from Sans, you all began watching the movie.    
  
You felt Chara’s anger subsiding bit by bit, and you knew you were making progress on their outlook. You hoped you could save them eventually. However, that hope was short lived with what they said in your mind about halfway through the movie.    
  
**_I’ve never noticed_ ** **that** **_before… oh this’ll be fun._ ** ****__  
****__  
And they faded from your mind  _ completely.  _ You saw Sans narrow his sockets and look around a little bit before shrugging it off. However he did turn to you and pull your soul for a moment, making sure Papyrus wasn’t paying attention.    
  
“they’re gone...huh. knew i felt something different.” Sans said, but you could tell his suspicions were still up.    
  
Regardless, he let the bones down. Relieved, you clung to his figure, head against his chest. You almost immediately fell asleep to the hum of his soul. 


	29. February Freedom [Explicit]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You and Sans celebrate your newfound freedom with something you never expected. 
> 
> [[There is smut this chapter]] This is your warning for sexual content.
> 
> Oh and it's Sans P.O.V. So enjoy that. 
> 
> My faithful friend,TheGrimHarpy, teamed up with me to bring you this smut. 
> 
> So it was co-written but eyyyyy it's still goood

You leaned against Sans on the couch the day after Chara left...suspiciously. Sans was confused as well, considering he couldn’t think of any place Chara would go, other than back to Frisk. He supposed that was probably for the best, considering you made the demon a little too comfortable in your mind. Shrugging, he put his arm around you. You were sleeping, head resting on his chest. He ran his other hand through your hair, which was splayed like a golden halo. He loved it. From demon to angel in a day. He subconsciously pulled you close to him.   
  
“i love you so much…” he whispered, “no place i’d rather _bea_.”

He could’ve sworn you groaned in your sleep.   
  
“Ya know Sans, i’d like to sleep sans the puns thanks.”

Ah well, he tried. _Wait._   
  
Hah. Clever.

You got up to stretch and Sans couldn’t help but pout, having gotten used to the heat of you.   
  
“How much longer till Pap gets off of work?” You asked, turning your head back towards him.   
  
“uh I think he gets off in about 2 hours?” Sans guessed, checking his phone to verify. “nevermind. he'll be at alphys and undyne's house tonight.”

Sans watched as you started walking toward your room. He panicked. He didn’t want you to be alone... wow what had gotten into him? All that time with Chara as a barrier must have really gotten to him. Shaking his head, he followed you.   
  
“Following me to bed?” You joked, a smirk crossing your features.   
  
Blushing, Sans looked away.   
  
“m-maybe.” Sans admitted, laughing and scratching the back of his skull.   
  
He watched you climb under your thick blankets. The chill of the February air bit at his bones and he crawled in with you, but not without a little coaxing. However, instead of just a simple little spoon session, like Sans had wanted, you were turned to him, fiddling with his shirt. Sans laughed, his chest rising and falling in accordance. He loved how cute you were. Quite the bea-uty.   
  
Wow that was overused. He’d have to try harder.   
  
He ran a hand through your hair, down to the base of your head and lightly traced the vertebrae in your neck. Suddenly he felt you shudder, and he flinched.   
  
“did i hurt you, vertebrae-bea?” he asked, concern and jokes melding together.   
  
“N-no!” You stuttered, catching Sans off guard. Your legs had curled up a bit when he had done that… did it do what he thought it did?

 _Time for...an experiment_ , Sans thought, smirking.   
  
“What’s the smirk for, mister?” You asked, confidence returning.

“nothin’” Sans replied, bringing a hand to your side, again just barely dancing the tips of his phalanges against the skin, his smirk becoming more pronounced as he watched you bite your lip and _squirm,_ breath hitching. Oh he could get used to this. But out of respect, he quit, just resting his hand on your side instead.   
  
“I didn’t say stop…” You trailed off, looking away. Oh god you were so cute.

“ya looked distressed.” Sans chuckled, pressing a finger to your nose playfully.   
  
“You’re stupid.” You mumbled, turning your face away indignantly.   
  
“am i?” his inquiry was more than vocal; he slid his hand down to firmly run the base of his palm up against your hip, which drew a breathy moan from your lips.   
  
“don’t wake up paps…” Sans whispered, with faux concern.

“He’s at Alphys and Undyne’s.”  
  
_Wow, how did I forget that?_ Sans thought, caught in the moment, which just ended. He’d have to recreate that somehow.   
  
“then by all means,” he whispered, bringing his teeth close to your ear, “be as loud as you want.”

You squeaked and shuddered at his voice alone, and he couldn’t resist a chuckle. You craned your head back; he didn’t know whether it was to look at him or not, but it granted him easy access to your neck.   
  
It was when he got there, teeth pressed into the skin lightly, enough to make you gasp, that he realized he had no idea what the fuck he was doing. So far, everything had been instinct. Either way, it was working. However, he was clueless at this point...he didn’t want to ask for help but…   
  
“hey bea?” he whispered, his voice causing a vibration against your neck.   
  
“Y-yeah Sans?” You pushed him back lightly to look into his eye sockets, concern on your face.   
  
“what do i do from here?”

If he thought the moment was on the verge of being ruined before, it was definitely almost there now; he was afraid you’d laugh. However, you flipped the tables on him instead.  
  
“Want me to show you?” You inquired, voice breathy and uncharacteristically sultry. Agh, he didn’t know if he’d be able to keep every cat from getting out of the bag at this point. You were making this more difficult for him than he expected.   
  
“yeah. please.” Sans met your eyes as you put a hand over the one he had positioned at your hip. You moved his thumb to press into the groove. From there, he had a general idea of what to do, at least for a minute. You guided the other hand to your other side to brush against your ribs.

He was a little confused as to why you didn’t lead his hand up to your chest, but upon unclasping your bra, he was met with the answer, considering that the blankets had become askew. You didn’t _have_ a chest, really. If you didn’t wear the equivalent of a training bra, there was a possibility you’d pass as male. He shook the thought from his head. It didn’t matter. You were _Bea._ _His_ Bea.   
  
He didn’t stare. You were gorgeous no matter what. And he was going to _show_ you.

He felt you start guiding the hand that was on your hip below the waistband of your boxers, where you had already kicked off your sweatpants. At first, he was just extremely curious about your body--that was short lived as soon as his fingers brushed against your sensitive nub, causing you to let out a soft moan. He rubbed the spot experimentally as he watched your face, seeing your expression shift as you let out a delicate moan.

 _Oh fuck…_ Sans subconsciously brushed his other hand down your waist, appreciating your softness as an unfamiliar warmth grows beneath his fingers. Curiosity peaked, he lets his fingers wander farther south, rubbing your clit with his thumb as he trailed his fingers down to explore your anatomy. He watches what he is doing, though occasionally throwing you an anxious glance to make sure this was okay.

Your breath had picked up as you ground your hips encouragingly against his hand, reaching out to slip your hand under his shirt and hook your fingers in his rib cage. A blue tinge spread across the skeletons face as he shuddered at your touch, meeting your eyes with a flustered look. He shook his head a little and gave you a nervous chuckle, not wanting to get carried away.

“tonight’s about you, babe,” he said firmly, if a bit breathless. “you’ve been through some shit lately. help me take care of you.”

You blushed and pulled your hand away, instead grasping at the sheets as if to hold onto something.   
  
As those words tumbled from his mouth, he pressed his two fingers into the warmth of your core, which caused you to gasp, bucking into his hand. He trailed his other hand against your ribs and along your side, which made you melt into a series of short jerks and heavy moans.   
  
Sans couldn’t get enough of what he was doing to you. Pressing his fingers further inside, he began to rub _methodically_ around your clit in slow circles. As his index and middle fingers hit a bundle of nerves deep within you, he heard your gasps and moans become more animalistic; a loud, high pitched and _needy_ scream flew from your lips, ending in a growl that made Sans’ bones shake.   
  
_Oh fuck, she’s sensitive…_ Sans thought as he moved his fingers back and forth to hit that spot again, quickening the pace of his thumb around your clit, waiting to hear that wonderful sound again.   
  
You definitely didn’t disappoint.

With a shuddering scream of his name, your body arched in sweet release, leaving you collapsed on the bed, breathless and euphoric.   
  
Sans was more than pleased with himself as he removed his hand from between your legs, winking at you as he sucked on his fingers a bit before grabbing some new sheets and blankets.   
  
“still wanna cuddle with me?” Sans inquired, “or did i just screw everything up.”   
  
A smirk danced across his face as that gorgeous smile met your eyes.   
  
“Get over here, bonehead.”  
  
He couldn't think of a better way to celebrate your freedom.


	30. Pitiful Papyrus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus comes home from his night out, and you give some hopefully helpful advice. Bad jokes ensue.

You were jolted awake by the sound of the front door slamming shut. A string of sad words flung through the halls. Sans stirred beside you and for a moment, and your heart fluttered. However, you couldn't dwell on that for very long, seeing as you heard Papyrus’s door slam. You and Sans shared a concerned glance at each other and at the clock that read 5am, and both stepped out and knocked on his door.

“paps what happened.”

“Papyrus, what's going on.”

“UNDYNE INVITED METTATON.” Papyrus wailed.

He didn't drop his  _ usual  _ voice, so that meant he was feeling pretty insecure if he couldn't even use his normal, low drawl.

“let us in, paps.”

You made some sort of affirmative sound and you heard the door unlock. Opening it, you saw Papyrus in his racecar bed, staring at the ceiling with orange tears glistening in his eyes.

“i thought you liked mettaton,” Sans said confusion creeping into his tone.

“YES. BUT HE AND I HAD A FALLING OUT A MONTH OR SO AGO AND UNDYNE DIDN'T KNOW SO SHE INVITED HIM OVER. I LEFT AS SOON AS I HEARD THE LIMO PULL UP. HE’LL NEVER SPEAK TO ME AGAIN.”   
  
You immediately knew that wasn’t true as you watched his phone light up with the names of Alphys, Undyne, and Mettaton, all texting and/or calling him.    
  
“But he’s texting you and calling you, Paps.” You moved your hand to motion at his phone.    
  
“JUST LIKE HE HAS BEEN FOR MONTHS. PROBABLY STILL UPSET WITH ME.”

“I thought you were supposed to be positive, Papyrus?” You clarified.    
  
“when it comes to mettaton, papyrus usually assumes the worst.”    
  
“Papyrus...if he makes you feel like that, then there’s something wrong with the relationship, be it as friends or more. He’s probably calling to apologize for whatever it was. You two really should talk.”    
  
Papyrus just exhaled and blinked back tears again, looking down at his phone just as Mettaton’s name came up again. Shooing you and Sans away, he slid it over to answer it, nervousness etched into his bones.    
  
You hoped you gave the right advice, and Sans’ sincere smile just helped your hopes climb a bit higher.    
  
“METTATON IS COMING OVER HERE INSTEAD.” You heard Papyrus call as you and Sans began to walk down the hallway.    
  
Looking at the clock, you saw it was almost 6am, so about breakfast time anyways.    
  
Peeking back into Papyrus’s room, you asked him if he wanted you to make breakfast.    
  
“That would be nice, Bea…” Papyrus sighed, exhausted. He probably hadn’t slept all night.   
  
“Coffee too, Papy dear?” You asked in your most sultry Mettaton voice, covering one eye with your hair.    
  
It caused a smile to light his features, and he chuckled, clearing his throat.    
  
“YES PLEASE.”

You chuckled, stepping into the kitchen, where Sans was making a pot of coffee. You started loading the dishwasher and cooking at the same time, asking Sans to make Papyrus a cup of coffee, black, 2 sugar packets. 

“Thanks, love.” You said, kissing the space between his eyes. He kissed your nose in response and exited with Papyrus’s cup before coming back to help you.    
  
“So what do you think of Mettaton?” You asked Sans, cracking eggs onto a pan.    
  
“he’s not all bad. a bit flashy, like his cameras. but he’s friendly. i don’t hate ‘im. he's cool. just hate his acting.”   
  
You laughed and nodded, flipping the eggs you had decided to fry.    
  
“Guess that’s to be expected from a literal ghost in a robot body.”    
  
“how did you--”   
  
Before you had a chance to answer, because of course your answer was going to be “Undertale”, there was a meek knock at the door.    
  
You went to go answer it, and to your surprise, Papyrus just stood meekly behind you. When you opened the door, there stood Mettaton. The very robot you gave part of your soul to. He wrapped you in his coil like arms, and you could tell he’d been crying too.    
  
“Thanks for having me for breakfast, Bea.” Mettaton said quietly, looking behind him warily for a moment before walking into the apartment.    
  
You nodded and motioned to the couch, going into the kitchen to finish the eggs and fry some bacon.    
  
“So it’s just eggs and bacon!” You called, making sure your voice could reach him and Papyrus over the sizzling.    
  
“SURE THING, BEA!  THANK YOU VERY MUCH! YOU ARE QUITE THE HUMAN!” Papyrus called back, loud enough to wake the neighbors, if he wasn’t careful. You couldn’t help but cringe.    
  
You saw Sans eying the knives, fascination and fear etched like hieroglyphics onto his face.    
  
“You okay? I can put those in a cupboard. I know you’re still upset from the time I had the big one that night.” 

Sans shook his head, grabbing the knife block with shaking hands and putting it in one on his own.    
  
“i gotta overcome this. chara’s gone right?” Sans asked, searching your eyes for reassurance.    
  
“Yeah.” You assured him, and yourself. What Chara said before they left really had you on edge. But you wouldn’t let that bug you. You wanted to spend some time with Papyrus and Mettaton if they’d let you.    
  
Sans took the plate of eggs you finished and took it into the living-room, and you soon followed with a plate piled high with bacon.    
  
You sat down with them and began eating. You were confused as to where Mettaton’s food went though.    
  
“Where does the food go, Mettaton?” You asked, knowing that this was human food--not converted into energy the same way Monster food is.    
  
“Alphys built me an artificial stomach for when we got to the surface, darling,” Mettaton assured you, reaching across the table to put a hand over yours, smiling and meeting your gaze before leaning back. So polite.    
  
“That’s cool!” You smiled.    
  
The rest of the meal was completed mostly in silence, and Papyrus and Mettaton wanted a moment to talk.    
  
You and Sans stepped outside. 

“so, have anything planned for the rest of today?” Sans asked, “like, do you work or anything?”

You laughed.    
  
“Eight months of absence; I’m pretty sure I don’t have a job.” You ran a hand through your growing hair, which was being tossed to and fro by a light breeze.    
  
“you could call and find out, that shouldn’t be too much  _ work _ .” 

You tipped your head back and groaned.    
  
“Tomorrow.“ You looked at him sideways, expectantly.    
  
“don’t ya mean--” “to _MARROW_?”    
  
You both busted up laughing, drowning out the groan from the living-room.    
  
Sans put his hands in his pockets and turned to you.    
  
“seriously though. any plans?”

You shook your head. Any plans you had, were up to him. 

“i was thinking of going to the chocolate factory downtown.” Sans said.    
  
You froze, looking over at Sans.    
  
“I thought you hated chocolate, Sans? Because of--”

“i know _you_ don’t.” Sans interrupted, looking into your eyes.   
  
“I’m partial to it. I don’t get it often. The only reason I justified getting it was because of--”  
  
You stopped talking and looked into Sans eyes, terror scrawled over both of your faces as you once again spoke in time..   
  
“Because of Chara!”  
  
Oh no. 


	31. Secretive Skeletons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans and Papyrus are hiding things (AKA You know more about Papyrus)

At first, you were really confused, because Chara couldn’t possess monster souls, right? Or at least, that’s what you thought. But when you asked Sans about it he just said that “undertale doesn’t explain everything”, and that “you were probably right” and completely skirted around the answer, trying to convince you that he couldn’t have chara inside him. He’s obviously a monster. He even tried to pull the “don’t you trust me?” card. 

The whole day was like that. Walking through town with unanswered questions. It left an awkward and bitter taste in your mouth.  It wasn’t until later that night, when you asked him to show you his soul that he suddenly made an excuse of being tired and scurried to his own bed. 

“YOU SLEPT IN MY BED LAST NIGHT, ASSHOLE!” You called after him, half joking, but half really miffed.    
  
Heh, miffed. You should ascribe that to Muffet if she ever got mad. Haha. Miffed Muffet.    
  
Anyways, you curled under your blankets and tried to drown out the doubts and the negativity that were plaguing your brain.    
  
You had opened up to Sans so much, and you’d received virtually nothing in return. He wouldn’t even let you reciprocate the night that you… groaning, you turned onto your side, tears forming.    
  
He’d seen your soul three times alone, and you’ve never seen his. Now that you think about it, you never got to restore the chip in his soul either. Bolting up out of bed, you ran to his door and  knocked on it furiously.    
  
“Sans!” You called, begging him to answer.    
  
“what is it” he mumbled sleepily. Of course. 

“Can we talk?” You ran a hand through your hair a couple times nervously. 

The door opened and you saw Sans standing in the doorway wearing blue pajamas with little white bones on them. Cute. But that wasn’t why you were here. You weren’t here to call him cute.   
  
You stepped inside the room and closed the door behind you. The room was a little more messy than the last time you saw it, but not by much. Also, GladOS’s chassis was almost done. You fought back the urge to smile, and sat on Sans’ bed instead.    
  
“I just realized something.” You tucked a strand of hair behind your ear, looking up at Sans, who was now standing in front of you with his arms crossed. That was intimidating.    
  
“I never got to fix your soul that day.”    
  
Sans facepalmed.    
  
“yeah, bea. because you passed out, remember?”   
  
You rolled your eyes.    
  
“I would’ve died for you!” You said, pushing him back slightly so that you could feel less small. Him standing over you was really putting you on edge.    
  
He sat down beside you and put a hand on your back.    
  
“i know you would have. but i wasn’t going to risk it.”

“Why won’t you show me your soul…? You’ve seen mine.” You inquired, your voice cracking with emotion. 

“i’m just not ready,” he stated simply.    
  
You guessed you could understand that. Because there wasn’t any threat behind it yet, according to what he  _ told _ you (you could take _ that _ with a grain of salt). Either Chara could possess monster souls, or they were hidden deep inside yours, where they couldn’t be found. One way or the other, you didn’t want to be alone tonight.    
  
“Okay. I’m sorry for being so nosy.”    
  
“it’s fine. i understand. now we should get some sleep.”    
  
He made to help you up but you just shook your head.    
  
“C-can I sleep with you?” You asked quietly, curling underneath the blankets.    
  
Sans chuckled and climbed in behind you.    
  
“i’m not stopping you.”    
  
He wrapped an arm around you and pulled you close. And before you knew it, you were out like a light. Safe in his arms.    
_____   
  
“SANS HAVE YOU SEEN THE HUMAN, SHE IS NOT IN HER ROOM!” 

You grumbled to yourself as you sat up and popped your back. You tiredly grinned at the fact that Papyrus was gonna burst into Sans’ room and--

“OH THERE YOU ARE. I WAS WONDERING IF YOU WANTED TO COOK BREAKFAST WITH ME. I HAVE WORK TODAY AND WAS HOPING TO SPEAK WITH YOU.” 

You nodded groggily and tried to wiggle out of Sans’ bed, carefully moving the small skeletons arm off of your midriff as not to wake him.

“nuh-uh.” Sans’ arm wrapped itself back around you and pulled you closer.    
  
“Sans ya gotta let me go!” You laughed, trying to push him back.    
  
“no. mine.”    
  
You laughed. God he was cute when he was sleepy.    
  
“Did you sleep well, bonehead?” You cooed, slowly inching away.   
  
“mhm.” 

“Can I go make breakfast with Paps?”

“nuhhh” he grumbled.

He was such a dork. You looked over at Papyrus apologetically and he just laughed.    
  
“I’LL LEAVE YOU TWO TO YOUR CANOODLING. I’LL MAKE YOU BREAKFAST IN BED. WE CAN TALK LATER!” Papyrus exclaimed, bounding out of the room.    
  
You chuckled. That was cool. You didn’t mind being next to Sans for a little while longer. 

As you lay by Sans, you wondered what Papyrus wanted to talk to you about. Was it about Sans? Was it about Mettaton? Sans eventually let you get up, and as you walked into the living-room, you heard Papyrus’s low voice tinged with bitterness.    
  
He was standing in the kitchen, leaning on the counter next to the stove with his elbows. His skull was in his palm and orange tears fell onto the countertop before fading into magic energy. He was facing away from you. 

You hated to see him like this. He was upset, and not the way Papyrus would normally get upset. You were seeing him extremely vulnerable. You didn’t know if you should be eavesdropping like this, but as soon as Papyrus’s voice picked up you were suddenly an attentive listener.

“Mettaton.” His voice was flat. “If you can’t make time for me, then what’s the point?”

You heard incoherent sobbing on the other end of the line.    
  
Papyrus sighed and slammed a fist on the counter.    
  
“Your shows and your fame will always be more important than me! I don’t want that life! Find someone who does!”    
  
There was more sad warbling and you thought you could make out Mettaton’s sentence this time: I’ll schedule you in more, I promise!

“Mettaton…” Papyrus’s voice cracked, “I don’t want to be  _ scheduled _ like an  _ appointment _ . I deserve better than that.”

Mettaton sounded resigned, with a sad “Then what do I do?”

Papyrus’s words shook you. 

“If you love me, let me go.”    
  
And with that, Papyrus hung up, placing his phone beside him and slamming his fist to the counter again, the tears falling slower. This side of Papyrus scared you. You were about to walk back over to Sans’ room when Papyrus called out to you.    
  
“I know you were there. Come here.” 

You shuddered. Ohhh he wasn’t in a good mood, and you didn’t want him to lash out at you.

He put a hand on his skull and pinched the malleable bone between his eyes, as if he were suffering from a headache. He used his other hand to cook bacon. 

“I know you and my brother are dating.”   
  
You nodded.   
  
“Don’t take him for granted.”  
  
You nodded again.   
  
“Don’t hurt him.”  
  
If you nodded anymore your head was going to fall off. 

“Got it?”

All of this reminded you of those Underswap AU’s, where Papyrus is more laid back, as you nodded again. You tried imagining Papyrus in an orange hoodie instead of the white button up he was wearing. It didn’t do much good. His scarf was wrapped around where his hips would be if he had any, and he was wearing his work pants. You saw the vest hanging on the door in the livingroom.    
  
“I’M GLAD YOU UNDERSTAND. I’M ALMOST DONE WITH BREAKFAST, SO GO WAKE UP MY LAZY BONES OF A BROTHER.”    
  
It was hard hearing him this way when you knew he was forcing it. You hoped Sans and Papyrus would talk about what happened. You didn’t want Sans to worry or anything. As Sans come out of the bedroom you wave him over. He looks over at Papyrus and back at you with concern.    
  
“He just got off the phone with Mettaton. Let him explain later, like after his shift or something; I’m doing job stuff today so I’ll be gone for a bit too” You whispered, keeping an eye on Papyrus just in case he might have heard you. He made no sign of acknowledgement.    
  
Sans nodded and leaned back.    
  
“i said mettaton was friendly. not smart.” Sans sighed, leaning against you, resting his skull on your shoulder. You smiled and kissed the top of his skull, just as Papyrus brought out the food. Silently. It was a little off-putting, eating in silence. Papyrus usually had something to talk about.    
  


“what’s up, paps? ya sick or somethin’?” Sans reached his hand toward Papyrus, who, against all odds, flinched away.    
  
“I DON’T WISH TO SPEAK OF IT, BUT.” Papyrus said, hands on his hips with an air of finality, “THE GREAT PAPYRUS DESERVES BETTER THAN AN EGOTISTICAL MALADAPTIVE HUNK OF HAUNTED METAL.”    
  
Ouch. You were glad Mettaton hadn’t heard that.

“sorry to hear that, bro.” Sans frowned, pushing food around on his plate. 

You nudged Sans and encouraged him to eat, which he luckily started doing, and the rest of the meal was completed in silence. Papyrus went to work, and you decided to call your boss, stepping out into the crisp almost spring air to do so.    
  
“Hey Boss!” You greeted, as you heard him pick up.    
  
“Bea, honey what’s up. Heard about that coma!” He sounded sincere, but also distracted.    
  
“I was just wondering if I still had a job.”    
  
If the silence was any longer, you’d die.    
  
“I’m so sorry Bea, but I needed to hire another worker in your stead and… listen you were the best employee I had.” His voice dropped as if he was holding back a laugh.    
  
Your tone grew bitter and sharp. You didn’t even think to call him Boss right now.    
  
“What else, Ryan.” You barked.    
  
“We’re building a drop in center in your area, for kids to come and talk to someone face to face. We want you to be a part of that. It pays more too.”

“Really Boss?!” You smiled and almost jumped up and down.    
  
“Yes, Bea! Uhh, you start in about two months, can you manage that?”    
“Sure thing, boss! Thank you so much!”   
  
“Pleasure. Talk to ya soon Bea!”  
  
____  
  
When the call ended and you careened back into the house, happiness unable to be contained.   
  
Until you saw Sans... god damn it you _knew_ you were right.    
  
Who’s normally flaming blue eye was now a flaming red, sharpened bones aimed at himself.    
  
And you  _ knew _ your Sans wasn’t Underfell (or suicidal for that matter).    
  
That left just one other person.    
  
“Hi Chara.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm gonna be pretty busy for the next few days cos of finals and stuff, so here's a nice little cliffhanger. <3 Love ya!!!!!!


	32. Attempted Skelecide

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chara has a field day?

Sans--no. Chara. Turned to look at you, and you saw them use  _ his mouth _ to smirk.    
  
His deep voice was laced with childlike merriness.    
  
“Hello again Bea! Ehehe! Sans is so easy to control!”   
  
They spun the bones around in a dancing circle around Sans. You hit an emergency button on your phone real subtly that would contact Frisk if something like this happened. Sans had taught you how to do that one. It would take an hour; you hoped you could stall that long.    
  
“Don’t hurt my Sans!” You whispered, on the verge of tears.    
  
“Oh I won’t,” their voice rang “I want to tell you all of his secrets. He’s a  _ dirty secret keeper.” _ _   
_ __   
You cringed at that choice of words.    
  
“I’ll openly invite you back into my soul. You can watch anything on TV, I’ll even let you draw on my tablet whenever you want, just let him go!” You pleaded, tears streaming down your face.  Chara used his face to scowl at you. It made you back up slightly, hoping that they wouldn’t turn against you.    
  
“Chara, I don’t want you to do this! Please, Chara! What have I ever done to hurt you!?”

Chara’s stolen skull tilted in confusion and the bones wavered slightly.   
  
“Why are you so nice?” Chara asked, voice thick with what sounded like guilt.   
  
“Because, you stupid demon, I don’t _hate_ you, Chara!” You stomped your foot, causing Chara to make the bones come closer to Sans’ neck.   
  
“ ** _WHY NOT?!”_** They yelled, rumbling the floor and causing a deep thrum in your chest, the bones were almost on Sans’ cervical vertebrae. .   
  
“Because I’m literally made of _love._ And while you took refuge in _my_ soul, I could tell you weren’t... _this!_ You were funny and sometimes even nice!” You argued, remembering the time they flicked ice cream onto your nose, and the time that they actually said goodnight to you. They weren’t _bad_ and you knew it!   
  
“YOU’RE LYING!” Chara screamed, bringing the bones millimeters from Sans’ neck.   
  
“Please, Chara. If you’re not out within the next 20 minutes, Frisk will be here, and I doubt you want to deal with them right now.”   
  
When you said that, it seemed Chara lost all resolve, and the bones clattered to the floor, fading into magical energy.   
  
“I just want to know one thing,” you began, ready to ask the question Sans had been avoiding telling, “why are you able to possess Sans?”   
  
Chara’s laugh filled the room.   
  
“You mean he hasn’t told you?” They cackled, putting stolen hands on stolen hips.   
  
Leaning toward you, they used Sans voice to say the one thing you weren’t sure you expected to hear.   
  
“Sans’ has got a human soul.”   
  
You just stared at Sans’ face in shock as slowly, you felt the darkness of Chara swirl around the room, deciding instead to coagulate onto a murky brown-black spot on the floor, in the shape of a child...just grotesque--a strand of dark, stringy matter was tethering them to Sans’s soul, which you could only faintly see glowing beneath his gray shirt.  
  
You stared for a while, until the demon child looked up at you. You heard a knock at the door.   
  
“ **REFUGE IN YOUR SOUL?”** Chara’s disheveled voice echoed loudly in your head.   
  
You just nodded, signing the word for “please” over and over again.   
  
“ **WHY WOULD I PASS UP AN OPPORTUNITY SO...UNIQUE?”**

It took no time before you felt their darkness flooded back into Sans’s soul, and his shirt was lifted high enough you could see his soul beneath his ribs; the brilliant cyan of patience. But before you could say anything more, the shirt fluttered back down over his waistband, and he had regained control. You decided to open the door that had been on the verge of busting down.   
  
“Hey Frisk, kiddo!” You greeted, ruffling their hair. Toriel was gone--must’ve just dropped them off.   
  
They signed ‘ _Where’s Chara?’_ and you motioned with your eyes back at Sans. Frisk put a horrified hand over their mouth.   
  
“Did you fix it?” They whispered, seeing that Sans was just sitting in the middle of the floor, crying.   
  
You led Frisk to your room to play on your tablet.   
  
“We’ll come talk to you later kiddo, but for now, I gotta cheer him up somehow.”   
  
They nodded in understanding and you walked back into the living-room, which was covered in half disintegrated bones.   
  
“ _Sans…”_ You sighed in relief as you went to wrap your arms around him. You weren’t ready for his response, which was to push you away and keep you away using blue magic; on your soul and using blue bones.   
  
“stay **a w a y** from me.” He moaned quietly, eye sockets dark and his expression pained.   
  
You shook your head. 

“I want to help you, baby!” You called out, hoping to reach him, knock some sense into him. 

“you can’t.” He stated.    
  
You groaned in response, feeling like you weighed a million pounds because of his magic, but also because you literally just saved his life.    
  
“I just saved your life, dummy.” You scoffed, frustrated that he could have already forgotten.    
  
“but who's to say you’ll save it every time that murder-child decides to--”   
  
“SANS STOP!” You cried, stomping your foot, which wasn’t being held back by blue bones.    
  
“Sans, can’t you feel them? They’re not  _ all bad.  _ If you’d just let me see your soul--”   
  
“ **NO.** ” He growled, pressing the bones against your neck, turning the one that was against your neck white. It burned, and it suffocated you.    
  
“S-Sans!” You choked. 

“ **If you love me…”** he began, pressing the bone further against your throat, causing a knife from the kitchen to fly into his hand, and he aimed it right over his soul, “ **let. me. go.** ”

You couldn’t gasp for breath and air was scarce. With the last breath you could muster, you wheezed his name through hurting trachea--   
  
“Sans...Help...me...”   
  
As if realizing what he was doing, he released you completely ran and hugged you as you collapsed to the floor, flinching away from him, but still telling him what to do to feel better.    
  
“Sans…” you whispered, “feel for them. Be patient.”

And he did, and his patience won out, and after about ten minutes of ‘soul searching’ his eyes met yours with a hopeful glimmer. 

“how could you tell?” He asked.    
  
“When they manifested outside of your soul...”    
  
He just nodded and pressed the top of his skull to your forehead.   
  
“bea, i’m scared.”   
  
“It’s okay.” You held him close, “I’m here for you...”  
  
You walked into your room together,    
  
“frisk, bea, I have something to explain to both of you…” 

You and Frisk held each others hands as you looked at Sans, waiting.    
  
“i have a human soul.”


	33. No Skin Off of Sans' Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Explanations are made. Drawing is done. 
> 
> Fun fact: SANS CAN'T DRAW

You don’t know what you expected. You expected him to tell you and Frisk about  _ how _ he ended up with the soul. Instead, all you got was him explaining that he had it and that it made him stronger than most other monsters for that reason.    
  
“Then why is your HP so low?” You had asked.    
  
He coughed.    
  
“imagine your human soul trying to sustain an entire magical state of being for an indefinite period of time.” 

You whistled in realization. Human souls weren’t using their magic to keep the body working. Yes, if the soul cracks, you die, but the human body isn’t directly sustained by soul magic like his is. So his human soul is working  _ overtime _ to maintain a physical form. 

“What else does that mean about your body?” You asked.    
  
“i have skin, tendons, and everything humans have, as long as i choose to manifest it, which takes a lot of effort. however, once those things are manifested, they function as if they aren’t made of magic. however, if someone cuts my bones, i’m going to bleed. that’s kind of weird. still haven’t figured out why that is.”    
  
You tried to keep your mind to wandering to all of the times he had kissed you or touched you and it felt like lips, or fingers, or at least something similar. It made you smile. 

He held his hands out, one for Frisk and one for you. When you went to take it, it felt like there was something--no. It felt like there was skin around his hand, and as he focused (you could see sweat beading on his skull), you saw pale blue translucent skin, veins, etcetera covering his hands. Frisk seemed just as in awe as you were. He quickly let it fizzle out and your hands fell to hard bone.    
  
“Is it a  _ real _ human soul?” Frisk asked, still holding Sans’ hand, as were you, both of you probably thinking back to the MTT Brand Soul Substitute.    
  
Sans shook his head, saying that he didn’t want to talk about it.    
  
Maybe it  _ was  _ MTT Brand Soul Substitute!

Nah. Sans was probably older than Mettaton. You tossed that idea out of your head.    
  
“Then how do you age?” You asked, knowing full well that monsters aged  _ extremely slow _ .    
  
“i have the same lifespan as a human. paps knows it...” He almost clapped a hand over his mouth.   
  
“Does Papyrus have a human soul?!” You and Frisk asked in unison.

“no.” he said shortly.    
  
You and Frisk sat in silence. Clearly he didn’t want to talk about  _ why or how, _ and it was already sad enough that Sans wasn’t even going to live half as long as Papyrus.   
  
“How old are you now…?” You inquired nervously.    
  
Sans chuckled, spirits seeming to lift at the prospect of saying anything.    
  
“no worries, i’m only like, 26.” 

You grinned. 5 years apart from you wasn’t so bad for dating, but as for Papyrus, that meant Sans only had about 60-70 years left, given nothing happened to him. You leaned forward to kiss him just to see furious signing next to you from Frisk-- “ew!!!!” 

After some mindless chatting, and teasing of the Frisk, you finally sent them back home to Toriel; Sans teleported them there. Papyrus came home, and nobody was the wiser.    
___   
  


As you sat in your room at midnight, doodling on thick coloured paper with Sans, you looked up from the starry eyes you were drawing to see Sans holding a crayon so tightly you thought it would snap in half.    
  
“What’s wrong, babe?” You asked, nudging his foot with your foot.    
  
“i can’t fucking draw this fucking--” 

You interrupted him with a groan and looked over at his paper, where you saw a crudely drawn horse...okay, well rectangle with four lines coming down off of it with a smaller rectangle as the head.    
  
“is that supposed to be a horse?” you asked.    
  
“no!” he cried in exasperation, crumpling it up, “it was supposed to be the cows we saw when we were driving home from ebott.” 

You fought really hard to suppress your laughter, and put your hand on his shoulder. You prayed he wouldn’t look up at you and see the huge shit eating grin on your face.    
  
“It looked good though…” You said.    
  
He looked up at you and you lost it.    
  
“what?! it’s not funny!”    
  
“It was literally two rectangles!”    
  
“cows are rectangular!”

“You have a point.”    
  
“no, but triangles do.”

You grabbed the paper from his hand, groaning.    
  
“Let me show you something.”   
  
Using his rectangles as a base, you drew the more fleshy parts of the cow around the rectangles and lines, and it actually came out pretty good once you coloured it in with the same colour he made the shapes in.    
  
“that’s so cool!” he said, eye lights wide and bright in awe.    
  
“You’re really good at the  _ frame _ , base, the  _ skeleton  _ of the picture if you will,” you surmised, “just not good at _ fleshing _ things out.”

Sans laughed along with you as he took the uncrumpled and perfected drawing and stuck it in his shorts pocket. 

You smiled at the fact that he wanted to keep it. What worried you, however, was what he began sketching next. You recognized it as Asgore immediately, as if a kid was drawing it.    
  
“S-Sans?” You asked.    
  
He looked up at you, the whites of his eyes looking into yours curiously.   
  
“wassup, bea?” He asked, worried.    
  
“Whatcha drawing?”    
  
He looked back down at the childish drawing of Asgore. And where his hand was writing “number one dad” beneath it, in what clearly _ wasn’t _ his handwriting. 

“chara, do you want me to give this to him? i heard ya when we dropped off frisk today.” Sans asked, with more patience than you’ve ever seen him use toward them...he said ‘we’ instead of ‘i’. You were taken back at his...kindness. They had only just this morning tried to kill him. 

You saw the corners of Sans smile twitch upward in amusement.    
  
“no skin off of my back, kid.” 

He materialized the blue skin of his back, pinched it, and let it dissipate and you almost died laughing. Not only did it look fucking ridiculous, but it was one of the best executions of a pun you’d ever seen. 

You realized Sans looked worn out and you put a hand on his patella.    
  
“Maybe we should get some sleep, Sans. After you tell me whether Asgore is getting another drawing to frame or not.”   
  
“nah, kid doesn’t want to.”   
  
You presumed as much and nodded, getting under the covers of your bed and inviting Sans in with you. He curled up behind you and wrapped an arm over you, resting his hand on your stomach.    
  
“Love you, Sans.”   
  
“love you too bea.” 


	34. Doctor Evans

You woke up that morning with a sore throat and a cough. Grumbling to yourself you slowly began working on untangling yourself from the heavy mass of bones that kept you pinned to the damp bed.    
  
Wait.    
  
Looking over at Sans, you noticed that he was dry as a bone; so it wasn’t a nightmare of  _ his _ .    
  
Oh shit you were coming up with these on accident now. Mentally slapping yourself, you ran a hand through your hair to realize that it was you who was covered in a cold sweat. Fumbling through your drawers, you fished for a thermometer. Coming up dry just made you more upset, and you were flinging quiet obscenities as you tore your room apart. 

“hey hey hey, hun are you--” 

You turned around just in time to see him place his hand where the majority of the sweat had dampened the sheets. Eugh. 

He looked over at you and noticed what state you were in--which you could only guess at, so you looked in your vanity mirror, and blanched (as if you could get any paler). You were white as a sheet, sweat beading on your forehead, hair damp, and eyes bloodshot. You opened your hidden away first aid kit from you closet and pulled out your back-up thermometer. Sticking it in your mouth, you waited. You felt freezing.    
  
“are you sick?” 

_ As if it couldn’t be more obvious, Sans,  _ you thought to yourself as the thermometer blipped. Pulling it from beneath your tongue, you clenched your fists at the numbers.    
  
**104.0**

You popped a couple of Tylenol from the kit and stuck it back into your closet.   
  
“what’s the temp, bea.”   
  
You just started walking to the kitchen to make tea.    
  
“bea.”   
  
“It was just a low grade fever.” You lied. The last thing you needed him to do was worry about your health. He had enough on his plate. A few Tylenol and plenty of liquids and you’d be good in no time.    
  
Besides, it’s not like skeletons could get sick. 

___  
  
Sans took a seat next to you on the couch as you sipped the last bit of tea from your mug. It was the last bit of tea that the house had, so he ended up sending Papyrus out for more.   
  
“low grade, huh?” He asked, putting a hand against your forehead. You felt like you were going to catch on fire and not just because of how attractive you were. He had to find a way to cool you down. He got up and went into the kitchen, getting an ice pack from the freezer.   
  
“Whatcha doin’?” You called from the living-room.   
  
“getting you some ice!” Sans called back.   
  
“But I’m already cold!” You said, quieter.   
  
He looked over at you and sure enough, you sat there shivering, despite the high temperature your body was emitting.   
  
“you know, that low grade stuff is b.s.” Sans stared you in the eye, hoping you would say something that made sense this time, instead of lying to him. Sans knew enough about human biology to know this was no baby fever. 

You sighed.    
  
“It was 104.”

“you know that’s like a degree away from heat stroke. i’m taking you to the hospital”

You groaned. Sans knew you hated having to go the hospital, but he wasn’t going to let you die because of a fever. He teleported to the front of the hospital, you in his arms. He knew your glare wasn’t going to get any nicer, but it didn’t deter him from his mission.    
  
“she’s running a fever, cold sweats.” Sans walked up to the front desk, and put you down so you could do the paperwork. He saw you leaning heavily against the counter, like you were going to fall if you didn’t. They put a wristband on you and had you sit in the waiting room, pulling Sans off to the side and speaking to him. A nurse called you back, and his face went from annoyance to panic as he watched them take you back without him.    
  
“Hey…” you started, a tad timid, “can you send Sans in here with me?”    
  
The nurse began starting your vitals and temperature instead of answering you.    
  
“ _ Excuse me, _ ” you said, louder, “please send Sans into my room.” 

Rolling her eyes, the nurse walked out of the room.    
  
“Send the filthy monster in!” You heard her call out.    
  
Soon after Sans walked in, immediately taking your hand, a doctor, about 24, with shaggy brown hair and a pristine lab coat came in, looking excitedly at Sans before composing himself. The lab coat covered a set of black scrubs that were covered in little pixelated red hearts. You smirked, and he coughed to compose himself more when he saw you.   
  
“Howdy, sir!” You smiled.   
  
“J-just call me Doctor Evans. I’m so sorry for the inconvenience miss...Lochráinn, some of our nurses are more closed minded than others. We’ve switched out nurses for you. It says here your temp is 104.2...have you taken any tylenol in the last 12 hours?” 

You nodded, looking at the clock, vision blurred from a headache that decided to start just now.    
  
“Just call me Bea, sir. I mean--Doctor Evans. And yeah I did, like half an hour ago.” 

The doctor looked down at where you were laying on the hospital bed, opting to take a seat on the rolly chair and become more level with you.    
  
“There has been a nasty new infection going around that has been pretty severe for people our age. We’re going to prescribe you some antibiotics for the infection and anti-inflammatories for the throat, and if you have a headache, the anti-inflammatories should help that too; it's probably your sinuses. We're also going to have to keep you overnight for observation. I’ll make sure you stay hydrated. And Bea?”

You smiled, hoping he’d say what you wanted him to.   
  
“Stay determined.” He said.    
  
You grinned so wide you thought your cheeks would break.    
  
“You too, Doctor Evans! The fate of our health depends on you!”    
  
He chuckled and waved, walking out of the room to check on other patients.    
__   
  
As the day progressed, you were given oral antibiotics and saline in your IV to help you stay hydrated, due to the fact you sweated a lot of it off. Doctor Evans had said you were lucky to have come in early, before the puking or vomiting started. He presumed you’d be able to go home by the next day and you were more than happy to hear that.    
  
“Hey Doc?” You asked, as he was coming in to check your temperature. You wondered why the nurses or CNA’s weren’t doing that for him.    
  
“What’s goin on?” He asked, looking back at you. Sans had gone home to read Papyrus a bedtime story.    
  
“You ever play Undertale?” You elbowed him lightly, not enough to jar him.    
  
Doctor Evans laughed, rolling his eyes.    
  
“Yeah, I did. I’m glad I quit though. My roommate wouldn’t have liked it very much, I don’t think.” He removed the thermometer from your ear.   
  
“Who’s your roommate?” You asked.   
  
“Jerry.”   


You paled and almost gagged.    
  
“I am so sorry…” You leaned over to whisper to him as he wrote down your temperature, “Wanna stay at my apartment with the skeleton brothers until Jerry finds another place? Or YOU find another place?”   
  
He laughed and looked at you with pleading eyes.    
  
“Yeah, let’s meet up after you’re not a patient.” He laughed, but his undertone was so serious you thought you might cry. You put a hand on his arm.    
  
“I’ll be praying for you.” You said sincerely.    


“Thanks, Bea.” He said, nudging your arm.   
  
“No problem, Doctor Evans.”   
  
"Call me Theodor. Or Theo." 


	35. Distant Distal Phalanges

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You get discharged, and yeah Sans goes through some shit.

Every bone in Sans body shook as he sat on his bed after reading to Papyrus.   
  
**_I know you want to go see her._** Chara said, mentally placing a hand on Sans shoulder.   
  
Sans closed his sockets and looked up at the ceiling.   
  
_But that doctor…_ Sans sighed, beating himself up for feeling this way.   
  
**_Will just end up being a friend._** **  
** **  
**Sans nodded, begrudgingly agreeing with the serial killer in his soul, and willed himself to teleport into your hospital room. The doctor wasn’t there, but you were, and you looked a little better than you had before, maybe even happier, without him...probably.  
  
“hey, hun.” He sat beside you on the bed. You smiled and took his hand in yours, running your fingers over his metacarpals. The sensation of finger against bone comforted him. It was one of the reasons he didn’t bother sending magic down to his hands. He did this time though. He didn’t know if it was to make you feel like he was more than a bag of bones, or whether it was to distance himself...either way, you took notice.   
  
“You okay, babe?” You asked, sitting up a little more, trying to press through the invisible skin that Sans had conjured.   
  
Sans didn’t know whether to be honest or not. Should he tell you he was jealous of that cute nerd? He tried to focus, but your pressing was getting insistent and a little painful, so he let the magic dissipate and you pressed your lips to his bone. Maybe he’d lie and say Chara was up to something.  
  
 **If you do, I will take you over** ** _right now_** **and tell her myself.** **  
** **  
**Sans groaned at how... _helpful_...Chara was being. Despite himself, he wondered why this child was being so nice. But then he remembered what you noticed about the color of their soul’s possession. It went from black to murky brown, and that meant Chara was changing, slowly, back into their original color of soul, which he could only guess at being either a shade of red or orange, or both.   
  
He had even took his soul out to look at it earlier and had noticed the splotches on it weren’t black anymore, but a different murkier colour. If you and him _could_ save Chara, he didn’t know if he’d have the hate left in him to make them pay for what they’d done. 

**Stop stalling, stupid skeleton--now tell Bea what’s wrong or I will.** Chara threatened once more, mentally pushing forward on Sans vocal chords.    
  
Sans groaned. Fine. But before he could compile his thoughts into a cohesive sentence, Chara forced his first thought out of his mouth.    
  
“do you like that doctor?” Sans blurted. Goddamn it that was way too direct.  
  
“Of course! Who wouldn’t?” You replied, smiling, holding onto Sans hand a little tighter.   
  
“i mean, like...as in  _ like _ .” Sans emphasised, at least, he hoped he did.    
  
The look on your face told him all he needed to know. The wide eyes, the  _ guilt _ .    
  
“Of course not!” You cried, and he was taken aback. “Did I do something to make you think that?!”   
  
So _ that’s  _ where the guilt came from _. _   
  
He shook his head, feeling dumb for even suggesting anything. He can’t control who you like and don’t like. He had no reason to be jealous.    
  
“no, i’m just being stupid.” Sans got up from the bed and made to teleport out of the room, his magic crackling through his bones, his guilt overwhelming him, but your voice stopped him, as well as your tight grip on his hand.    
  
“Hey, hun. It’s the first few months of a relationship. It’s okay for you to be a little nervous, and protective. I’m the same way, and baby I’ll admit, Theo--Doctor Evans, is cute, kind, and we have common interests, but I don’t see him as more than a friend…”    


Sans could tell you were holding something back.    
  
“and…?” he pushed, curiosity and jealousy causing him to sit back down.    
  
“And that’s why he’ll probably be rooming with us…” you trailed off, looking away from Sans.    
  
“why?” Sans asked; he felt an extra jolt of curiosity that wasn’t his own bloom in his mind, amplifying his own.    
  
“His roommate is Jerry.”    
  
**HAHAHAHA OH MY GOD THIS IS JUST RICH! LEAVE HIM THERE PFFFFF.** Chara went into hysterics, and it was everything Sans could do to focus.

Sans clenched his jaw at their outburst, and looked at you, nodding.    
  
“he can stay as long as he wants.” Sans rolled his head to each shoulder, stretching.   
  
**NOOOO LET HIM SUFFER,** Chara whined. 

Sans was wrong, this child deserved to die in the judgement hall. He mentally shut them out so he could focus on you. Simple enough, just a little box and a video game and they left him alone.    
____   
  
You held Sans hand for what felt like ages. You were feeling a little flattered by his jealousy, but you were also worried about what Chara was doing within him. You saw his features tense up every now and then, and you wished you could hear what they were saying, or feel what they were doing. Being in the dark from their antics felt like you were a step below being able to help.    
  
You were afraid that even if Chara  _ was _ doing something negative to Sans from the inside out, Sans wouldn’t tell you. He usually kept to himself, and tried to fix things on his own, anyways. If anything, he’d  _ never _ let you in. You began to pout. You just wanted him to be happy.    
  
As the doctor came back in, you saw Sans tense slightly, and you didn’t know whether it was out of jealousy or Chara’s influence. That’s what worried you… you could never tell what was wrong with Sans. It hurt to feel so disconnected.    
  
“So, Bea, seeing as everything is working, we’re going to discharge you in a couple of hours.” Theo said, his lab coat slightly wrinkled, and his scrubs looking worse for wear. There were bags under his eyes and his phone notifications were flashing relentlessly in his pocket.    
  
“You look exhausted…” you sighed, placing your free hand on his elbow, very lightly.    
  
He just nodded and checked off a few things on his clipboard.    
  
“I’m gonna send someone in to take your temp and vitals again, and then you’ll be free to go. My phone number is in the paperwork. My shift is over.  _ Finally.”  _ He shifted on his feet and waved, walking out of the room, without a farewell.    
  
You felt so bad for the man, but right now was cause for celebration! You could go  _ home _ ! 

You grabbed up your clothes and asked Sans to go out of the room, so you get get out of the grungy hospital gown that you  _ despised _ having to wear; you wondered why you bothered, he’d seen you in less. 

“Sans!” You called out as you got your shirt onto you.   
  
“yeah?” he responded from behind the curtain.    
  
Your foot got stuck in your pant leg.   
  
“Can you--ow--take me to taco bell, mcdonalds, or  _ something _ ? I’m sick of--god damnit--hospital food!” You hopped on one leg, trying to get your foot through the rest of the tube of fabric. 

“I’ll take ya to the _hottest_ place in town, you okay in there?” Concern flowed through his voice and you laughed, finally getting your foot through.    
  
“Yeah, I’m good.” You opened the curtain, smiling at Sans as he walked up and placed his arms around your waist.   
  
“i’m glad you’re feeling better.” He leaned his forehead against yours and closed his sockets. You closed your eyes in response.    
  
“Me too. Now let’s get this discharge paperwork filled out and go home.” 


	36. Baby We Built This Relationship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flufffity Fluff fluff fluff

It felt like an ocean was crashing over your head as you stepped outside of the hospital. The fresh air rushed into your lungs and you looked over at Sans, a smile on your face.    
  
“Grillby’s?” You ask, expectant.   
  
“grillby’s.” Sans took your arm and you were plunged into the split second of void before popping back in front of Grillby’s. You shook your head and smiled, but the look on Sans’ face was more somber.    
  
“You okay, babe?” You asked, a hand on his shoulder.    
  
“yeah, just felt weird going through there this time is all.” 

You nodded, and opened the door for Sans, who was greeted wildly as he walked in. You didn’t think you’d ever get used to the large reputation that Sans had going for him at Grillby’s. You took a seat by Sans in a booth, and the familiar friendly face of Neiko walked up and placed a couple of glasses of water on the table. You smiled at him and placed your order, Sans following suit. 

“How’ve you been, buddy?” You asked, ruffling his hair before he walked off. He twirled on his feet to walk back over to the table.   
  
“Ah, I’ve been alright! The bigger question is, how are you? Got everything worked out with Sans?” He shot a protective look over at the skeleton and you chuckled. 

“Yeah, everything’s worked out. Your advice worked a little bit, but I know it would’ve worked itself out.” You grabbed Sans hand over the table.

“That’s good. I’ll go get Grillby to whip these up for ya! Oh and Sans…” his look screamed ‘don’t break her heart’, but what he said sent you into hysterics.    
  
“Grillby showed me your tab.”    
  
You didn’t think skeletons could become more pale than they already were.    
  
Neiko leaned on the table and looked over into Sans sockets with a smirk growing on his face.    
  
“Pay it.”

With that, Neiko laughed and walked away, leaving you to crumble into hysterical laughter. Sans chuckled as the ghost white his bones had become faded back into the bleachy color that bone usually was. You chuckled as his cheekbones burned blue, and he hid his discomposure by drinking his water. 

You laughed and checked your phone, which was blinking with a voicemail from Papyrus. Maybe he tried calling during the teleport?

You put it on speaker at low volume and placed it in the middle of the table so Sans could listen.    
  
“HELLO BEA! IT IS I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS. I WAS PERUSING THE INTERNET BEFORE FALLING ASLEEP AND I WOULD LIKE TO INFORM YOU THAT THERE WILL BE A METEOR SHOWER TOMORROW NIGHT AND THAT I THINK IT WOULD BE NICE IF WE COULD ALL GO. YOURS, PAPYRUS.” 

You smiled and put your phone away, but not after texting Papyrus a quick, ‘lets do it’.    
  
Sans eyes brightened up.    
  
“what’s a meteor shower?” he asked, eyes expectant. You knew he knew what space and meteors were, but not a meteor shower?   
  
“A meteor shower is when meteors enter earth’s atmosphere and burn up, a lot of people call them shooting stars, because it looks like stars are falling through the sky. It’s beautiful.” You said, reminiscing about some of the other times you’d been stargazing during meteor showers--with your dad, Neiko, and even once with the Vulkin from the cafe. You still had yet to see her for a while. 

Sans eye lights shone bright and they bored into your eyes with excitement.    
  
“tomorrow!” He exclaimed.   
  
“Tomorrow.” You put your hand to his cheek.   
  
“and we’re going?!”    
  
“Yes, bonehead,” you replied, chuckling.    
  
He was so giddy and excited, but it quickly faded. You knew Chara had said something because his eyes shot to the right, which is what yours would do when Chara said something and you acted as if you were glaring at them.    
  
“What’d they say.” You stroked his cheek with your thumb.    
  
“they’re just rocks…” he whispered.    
  
“Don’t let Chara dissuade you. It’s still beautiful.” You pulled his face to meet yours with a kiss, and sat back.    
  
Sans’ eyes widened and his smile grew.    
  
At that moment, Neiko came back with your food, so you both dug in and saved conversation for after your stomachs were full. 

__   
  
Sans teleported you home and you sat on the edge of your bed, seeing as it was still rather dark out, and you kicked your feet. 

Sans rested his skull on your shoulder and you rubbed his back with your hand, which was basically just running your hand over his spine from over his shirt. It seemed to relax him, as he was beginning to fall asleep.    
  
“Hey bonehead, let’s go to sleep.” You leaned him back on the bed and rolled over to your own side, giving the side of his skull a peck as you rolled to face away from him. 

“hey hun?” his rich baritone seemed sad.    
  
“What’s up?” you rolled to face him, his sockets were half closed (you still wondered how on earth that was possible), and his smile was fading.    
  
“after this whole chara mess is over, i wanna share my soul with you.” His face cringed as Chara probably had a backlash for that.    
  
You felt conflicted… you’d only been in this relationship with Sans for about three months, at least, that’s what it felt like to you… You had no idea how fast this usually went for monsters, but you had no idea what he meant by ‘soul sharing’... at least it wasn’t soul  _ bonding _ or anything right?   
  
“I’ll have to think about it…” you whispered.   
  
“why?” He asked.   
  
“For you, it’s been 8 months, almost a year, loving me like this. For me, it’s only been three. I need more time to think about what that means for  _ us _ .” You said, shocked that any similar topic to this hadn’t come up before that point. 

Sans just nodded and closed his eyes, reaching a hand out for yours. You obliged, turning around and placing his hand on your stomach.    
  
“we’ve come a long way, huh.” He asked.   
  
“Hell yeah, we have.” You agreed, chuckling lightly. 

“after this mess, let’s like, get a house” Sans chuckled as he suggested it.

“Totally. There’d be so much more room!” You laughed, running your heel along Sans’ shin. 

You smiled, and you could feel the thrum of Sans soul against your back, and you were sure he could feel the warmth of you. This moment was sweeter than you could imagine.    
  
“I love you, Sans,” you assured, squeezing his hand.    
  
“i love you, Bea.” He pulled you closer to him.   
  
Together, you fell asleep. Content with the events of the day.


	37. Take My Picture Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans and Chara are asses.

You woke up nestled in the same position you fell asleep in, and it felt so amazing. You wanted to cuddle in that position for  _ ever _ . But of course, your own bodily functions took precedence. How? Your stomach decided to growl.    
  
“hungry, babe?” his eyes lit in playful mirth as you turned to face him after twitching in surprise.    
  
“You’re awake…” your voice was low and cracky, due to just waking up.    
  
“yeah, have been for a couple minutes, wanna  _ scramble _ up some food?” 

“That was terrible.” You pushed him onto his back, and kissed his forehead before getting up and moving to the kitchen. 

As you opened the fridge, the smell of mold hit you and you covered your face with your hand, using the other to wave the smell away.    
  
“Augh, what went bad?”    
  
You searched through the fridge until you found the culprit--a bag of unused bread that had been left open after a sandwich, most likely. The bread was covered in mold and you had to toss it into the dumpster outside the apartment. Literally toss. You were too lazy to walk down the stairs to put it in the dumpster, so you threw it from your apartment door. Slam dunk. 

Sans watched all of this with amusement as you walked to and fro from the kitchen making sure that the smell was gone. 

You glared at him, wondering how in the world he could just stand there and---oh right. He’s lazy. Rolling your eyes, you grabbed eggs from the fridge and cracked them into a bowl, whisking them with some cheese, salt, and pepper, and then pouring it into a pan, ready to scramble. 

“when i said scramble, i didn’t think you’d make scrambled eggs.” Sans walked up behind you and wrapped his arms around your waist. You giggled as he nuzzled his face against your neck. 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, egghead.” You tapped the spatula against his soul lightly, making a ‘clunk’ noise before going back to pushing eggs around in a pan. 

His rumbling laugh bounced through the kitchen, engaging you in laughter too. 

“So we’re going stargazing tonight,” you said, putting the finished eggs onto a couple of plates for you and Sans.    
  
“yup, can’t wait.” You saw him cringe again. Goddamn demonchild. 

“Babe, can I look at your soul?” You asked lightly, a hand on his shoulder. 

He nodded, and pulled it out for you both to look at, and you gasped.    
  
What was once cyan was now over halfway littered with brown blotches.    
  
“We  _ have _ to fix this.” You teared up, and tried to help push his soul back into his body, but it wouldn’t budge. You heard a voice from Sans mouth that sent chills.   
  
“ **Oh this is the most perfect opportunity!”** Their childlike voice echoed as Sans hand gripped his soul.    
  
“ **How were you planning on** **_saving_ ** **me?”** They asked, grip tightening, spiderwebbed cracks appearing in the cyan.

“I don’t know!” You cried, trying to pry Sans’ fingers off of his soul, “somehow?!” 

The hand tightened a little more, and the cracks splintered further.    
  
“ **I WANT CONTROL. I WANT MY OWN BODY BACK!”** The murky brown colors of Chara’s possession coalesced outside of Sans soul, and what wasn’t clear before was clear now.    
  
The murky brown took the shape of a young child, and almost every detail about them was noticeable, aside from the colors of their clothes--everything was brown. They were about Frisks age, tears of red falling from their eyes...no, their eyes were red. They looked at you, pleadingly. The mass they had come to form was only semi-solid. You attributed that to the state of their soul--still demonic in nature. But Chara...they were sobbing. They were upset. They...they didn't want to be this way.   
  
“Chara,” you whispered, reaching out to the child. The murky brown semi-solid mist of a child reached out their hand toward you, and you took it.    
  
“For us to save you,” you began, tears falling, Sans looking like he was going to faint, “Your soul has to become it’s own color again. It’s original color.”    
  
Of course this was all just guessing, but it seemed correct, seeing as how their body became more solid as their soul became brighter.    
  
Chara nodded, sniffling, eyes flashing at you.    
  
**“I don’t want to be this way…”** They whispered.    
  
Your heart ached. You looked to Sans.    
  
“Sans?” You said, pleading in your voice.    
  
“yeah…” he rasped.    
  
“Tonight...give Chara one eye so they can watch the meteor shower.”    
  
“hell n--”   
  
“SANS.” You pushed. 

He just nodded, gasping as Chara flooded back into his soul, which popped into his chest with a satisfying sound--like that of a bass drop. Looking back at his soul, you saw that Chara had taken back some of their control, leaving the soul mostly cyan. 

 

Sans looked at you with anger. You backed into the counter. Why was he so angry!?

“ _ why the hell are you being so nice to them.”  _ His voice was deep and raspy, and you knew his soul could use a break right now.    
  
“Because I see the good in them!” you snapped back pathetically, almost burning your hand on the burner because you hadn’t turned it off yet.    
  
“ _ they almost fucking killed me, and you’re siding with them?”  _ He stepped closer to you and your hand slipped against the burner, causing a huge blister to form on the inside of your palm, even though you snatched it to your chest immediately.    
  
“Sans! Please think about what you’re saying. You can feel it too, can’t you? They’re trying to change!” You tried to reason with the skeleton, but it wasn’t working. He just kept walking closer to you, until you managed to slip out around him and stand behind him, ready to bolt out the door if necessary.    
  
“ _ do you want me  _ **_d e a d_ ** _? they almost  _ **_k i l l ed  m e._ ** _ Just. Like.  _ **_Y O U._ ** _ ”  _ His magic crackled around him and the yellow and blue flashing of his left eye made your stomach churn. It was bad enough your hand was burned, but he wasn’t listening to reason! Did he have to bring up the past?!   
  
“Sans?” That was Papyrus. Papyrus was home. How long had he been there?    
  
Immediately, Sans anger faded into fear, and he popped out of the room, and you heard him collapse on his bed. Falling to your knees, you broke down into sobs, as Papyrus leaned down in front of you and pulled you into a hug, the flour from his work uniform at Muffets creating a tiny cloud around where he pulled you to him.    
  
“What’s going on, Bea?”    
  
So you filled Papyrus in on every detail of what just happened. When you pulled back to look at Papyrus’s face, it was seething with anger.    
  
“He had no right to say those things or bring up the past, given the progress.” Papyrus growled, storming toward Sans’s room.  _ THAT _ was terrifying too. You never thought you’d be able to equate Papyrus’s voice to thunder.    
  
You could hear the lecture Papyrus was giving Sans, given his voice was loud, stern, and deep. You knew now they were related. They sounded the same when they were angry. Papyrus was just louder--well that was probably because he was yelling.    
  
“Sans, Bea is  _ right. _ Chara has been making progress. And yeah, they’re going to slip up, but if you think for one moment that Chara would actually  _ kill _ you? You’ve got another thing coming. For one, you’re an amazing brother. Nobody could kill you. You had  _ no right _ to bring up Bea’s past offenses when you yourself have already forgiven her, right? Come on. Get your  **act** together, brother.  _ Well… _ With how much Chara has changed, I don’t think they have the heart for it anymore, and no that’s not a pun on soul shapes. Sans, I’m serious...please--STOP LAUGHING WHEN I’M TRYING TO LECTURE YOU! I can tell you’re laughing because you’re upset, not because that was funny!” 

After that, Papyrus brought his voice down, and you couldn’t hear any more, just the murmur of their voices as they talked. You stayed sitting in the middle of the living-room, holding a plate of scrambled eggs, pathetically shoving them into your mouth with a fork. You jumped when you heard Sans’ bedroom door open.    
  
“bea?” your breath caught in your throat as you went to swallow egg and you almost choked. You still hadn’t tended to your burnt hand…    
  
“bea...i’m sorry.”   
  
You choked back a sob as he held your hand out in front of you. You were trembling. This was the second time he’d almost hurt you...except this time, this time you were actually afraid. His anger was like a polaroid, burning its image into your head.   
  
“bea...please forgive me.” Sans used whatever he had left of his healing magic on your hand, and out of exhaustion, you let yourself collapse against him.   
  
“forgive me.” 

Maybe later...


	38. Shake It 'Til You See It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meteor showers and reconciliation.

It was two hours before the meteor shower was supposed to start; 4 hours after the... _ argument _ . You and Sans hadn’t spoken for that entire four hours. After collapsing against him, he brushed his hand through your hair for a good ten minutes before you got up and trudged to your room, saying you needed some time alone. Now? You just felt bitter and irritable.  _ Salty, _ as it was frequently referred to.    
  
If it’s called salty, you were the Dead Sea. 

You grabbed your fancy red polaroid camera you bought last year, which was just sitting in your closet. It was a newer model, and you had bought a ton of paper refills for it. You kind of regretted not pulling it out before tonight, but you figured a meteor shower was the perfect place to get some mileage out of it, maybe you’d even take pictures of the boys.  
  
You heard a pop behind you and you tensed.    
  
“bea?” 

You didn’t answer, instead wearing the camera around your neck like some tourist. Your clothing went from its normal black and blue and yellow to red and black.    
  
Yeah, you were definitely still salty toward the small skeleton--salt laced with fear.   
  
“can we talk? so that we’re not on bad terms before this thing tonight…”    
  
You shoved past him to your dresser, searching for one of your favorite old necklaces.    
  
“and i hate it when paps is mad at me.”    
  
You scoffed, rolling your eyes as you fastened the sterling silver chain around your neck, the red skull charm resting just below your collarbone. Turning around, you didn’t even look at Sans as you made to walk out the door.    
  
_ POP. _ __  
__  
He appeared in front of you. You didn’t react, and tried to push past him, but he wouldn’t budge.    
  
“please, bea,  _ talk to me _ .” His begging was  __ really  getting on your nerves, and not because it was annoying, but because it almost made you cry. You hated seeing him like this, but you were upset and you had every right to be, right?   
  
“Fine,” you grumbled, turning around and sitting in the middle of your bed, criss cross, “What.”    
  
“i’m sorry for being so upset at you. you’re right. i was being unreasonable.”    
  
You nodded, only minimally encouraging him to continue. 

“and chara even admitted they don’t want to kill me…” Sans looked down pathetically, “listen bea, i was scared, and i was hurt that you didn’t seem to care about what state i was in...especially my soul. i reacted out of anger and i’m  _ sorry _ .”

You looked down guiltily. He  _ was _ right, you hadn’t even acknowledged the pain chara put him through, and immediately jumped to their defense instead of checking on Sans. You could’ve done more to show you were concerned, but your logical mind jumped ahead of your loving nature for once, at a time where it would’ve been better if it hadn’t. 

“I’m sorry too…” you whispered, “You’re right. But i did care…”    
  
“bea,” he sighed, tilting your chin up to look at him, “i know you did. and i forgive you… can you forgive me?”    
  
You sighed, nodding.    
  
“I forgive you Sans, but I’m still upset.” 

He pulled you close to him, and you kissed his cervical vertebrae affectionately before opting to nuzzle the side of his face.    
  
“you’re so cute,” Sans smirked, “it’s almost un- _ bea- _ lievable.” 

“Shut up!” You laughed, anger fading.    
  
As Sans had his head back, laughing, you lifted the polaroid to capture it, as the light on the ceiling shined directly onto his face. The sound of the picture snapping made Sans jump, and he looked at you questioningly.    
  
“what…?”    
  
You handed him the little paper and told him where to hold it.    
  
“Shake it until you see the picture.” You urged.    
  
As the picture came into view, Sans blushed and held it close to him.    
  
“that’s such a good picture.” He held it out to look at it again, and showed you.    
  
You had to admit, you had a knack for capturing candid moments.    
  
His head was tilted back just enough you could see his whole face, but also some of his cervical vertebrae, and the light illuminated the top of his face, and immersed the lower part of his jaw in shadow. It was haunting and beautiful.  
  
When it completely dried, you put it in a little travel album you kept with you to store the photos until you could transfer them to a bigger album.    
  
“It’s almost time to go.” You pulled him by his hand and almost ran into Papyrus in the hallway.    
  
“I’M GLAD TO SEE YOU TWO HAVE MADE UP. READY FOR OUR OUTING?!” Papyrus was giddy and excited, and you couldn’t blame him. 

You lifted up your camera and snapped a picture of Papyrus’s smiling face.     
  
“Of course! Let’s get into the car!” You shook the picture dry and put it in the album, grinning as you bounded down the steps and into the convertible.    


As you were driving toward the top of a nearby mountain (not Mt. Ember/Ebott), you looked over into the front passenger seat at Sans.    
  
“Have you two ever seen a thunderstorm?” You asked, seeing as there were barely any storms in the Grant Lake area. 

“WE KNOW WHAT THEY ARE,” Papyrus started,    
  
“but we’ve never actually  _ seen _ one,” Sans finished. 

You chuckled at the brotherly connection Sans and Papyrus shared and found yourself wondering about their origins. You remembered Papyrus talking about Gaster before, but he had said “dad” as if it was in air quotes. Your months of diving into AU’s and fanfiction plagued your mind, causing you to wonder--were the brothers made or born? Unfortunately, you figured it’d be insensitive to ask either of them, since it was probably a sensitive topic. You pushed the question into the back of your mind.    
  
“bea, how much longer till we get to the top?” 

“I dunno Sans,” you said with a smirk, “has the meteor shower... _ peaked _ your interest?”

Papyrus’s groan along with Sans’ laugh caused you to erupt into a fit of giggles in the backseat. You almost missed telling Papyrus were to turn to get to the meadow near the top of the mountain. 

As you all pulled up to it, Sans and Papyrus gasped at how clear the sky was. It was  _ just _ getting dark, and you could already see the milky way. 

“oh my god…” Sans took a breath beside you.    
  
You looked over and the sunset illuminated his face, as he gazed up at the sky. You stealthily took a picture with your polaroid, shaking it and putting it in your album.    
  
“did you just--”    
  
“Enjoy the view,” You interrupted, pointing at the darkening sky.

Just as he looked back up, two meteorites shot across the sky, burning into nothing in the atmosphere.  
  
“WOWIE…” you heard from behind you.    
  
Turning around you watched as Papyrus slowly lowered himself to the ground to lie on his back. As he was leaning back onto his arms, you snapped a picture, catching the awe on his face in the flash of the camera.    
  
You caught a couple of the shooting stars/meteorites with your camera, but it wasn’t easy, so you put it back in the car and situated yourself on the ground next to Sans, who was quick to grab for your hand. Although you were still jumpy around him--and he'd have to do a lot to earn your trust back--you gave his hand a gentle squeeze, leaning back all the way to the ground to watch the stars together.    



	39. And When Your Fantasies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, I'm sorry. Just over 1k words :/ but i've been feeling so unmotivated.

As the night progressed and the meteorites came and went, you couldn’t bring yourself to get up off the ground--yeah, it was getting cold, but it was so peaceful. The whole night felt like a dream, or something out of a fantasy novel, despite the _bone chilling_ bite of the air as it brushed your skin.   
  
“ready to go home?” Sans asked, feeling your hand twitch from the cold--you jumped at the sound of his voice  
  
“Yeah.” You looked over at into his worried eye sockets and smiled, squeezing his hand in reassurance. 

Sans stood up, offering you a hand, which you gratefully accepted, and looked back at Papyrus, who was asleep on the ground. Of all the people to fall asleep, you didn’t think it’d be Paps, but seeing as how he was the only one who had to work that day, diffuse an argument, and drive up a mountain, it made a  _ little _ more sense.

You walked back over to Papyrus and shook him gently. 

“Pap, it’s time to go home.” 

He sat up and rubbed at his sockets gently, moving so that he could stand himself up.    
  
“THAT WAS GORGEOUS.” He concluded, trudging sleepily to the car.    
  
You looked fondly after him, and linked hands with Sans, who looked as if he was deep in thought-- _ or conversation _ , you reminded yourself. 

You watched as Sans shuffled lazily into the driver’s seat, casting you a fond glance as Papyrus handed him the keys and he started the car. You leaned forward to place a peck on the back of his head, and you could’ve sworn his fond smile widened almost to his eyes.    
  
About ten minutes into the drive and checking to see if Papyrus was asleep (he was), you leaned forward from the backseat and whispered to Sans.    
  
“So what were you and Chara talking about?” 

Sans chuckles and glanced at you in the mirror.    
  
“just the stars. they miss feeling things.” Sans shrugged.    
  
You nodded, but then looked over at Sans, listening to the tires rumble against the ground.    
  
“Sans?” You whispered.   
  
“what’s up bea?”    
  
“The maker of the game, Toby Fox… we need to find and talk to him.”   
  
Sans looked back at you, asking “why?”. 

“He made the game. The only reason I’m still not up to par is because of the damage this game caused… and apparently only  _ my _ copy.” You explained, the entire night outdoors fatiguing you more than it would have if you were still healthy from before the coma. 

Sans nodded, considering this. A sudden glazed look crossed over his pupils as the white lights turned a light shade of red.    
  
“How did he know so much about us…?” Chara asked through Sans, and  _ with _ Sans, since you heard his voice layered over Chara’s.  _ That was kind of creepy.  _   
  
You shrugged and sighed.    
  
“Something we can figure out later. The government probably has him anyways.” You groaned. 

Still, it would be a really good idea to figure out what caused this whole mess. With the mess over, it seemed like life was a fantasy… but heaven knows how fantasies end--in waking up. 

__   
  
As you fell asleep in the backseat, Sans pondered over what you’d said. He had completely forgotten the significance the game had… it had been 7 months, and he  _ really _ wanted to put that behind him. But he knew that unless they stopped the creator, there’d be no way to keep this from happening again. 

He half wondered what had put that on your mind, but it could’ve just been an epiphany. 

Shrugging, he pulled into the driveway, and shook Paps to wake him up again.    
  
“bro, we’re home, time for bed.”    
  
Papyrus just nodded and walked up the steps groggily. As for you, he teleported you and him into your room. He tucked you beneath the characters and quickly left to open the door for Papyrus as he walked in. The taller of the brothers looked very much worse for wear--and he was the youngest, kind of.    
  
“Goodnight, Sans.” Papyrus whispered, yawning.    
  
Sans nodded and teleported back into your room, crawling into the blankets beside you.    
  
You were still asleep, or so he thought, until he heard you whisper his name.    
  
“what’s up, darlin’?” he replied, voice low.    
  
“I love you.” You whispered sleepily.

Sans smiled and wrapped his arm around your middle, pulling you closer to him.    
  
“i love you.” he replied.    
  
No matter what, he’d always love you.    
  
And from the back of his head, just as he was falling asleep, he could’ve sworn he heard a small,  _ “ _ **_she deserves it_ ** _ ”  _ and it wasn’t malicious.    
__  
  
You woke up in your bed and smiled at the comforting arm that was resting on your stomach. Looking at your alarm clock, you saw that it was about 8:00am. At first, you thought you had work before you realized you still have 1 and a half months till you have to go back. You had the full intention of shutting your eyes and returning to slumber, but instead and you smelled french toast. 

Groaning, you move Sans’ arm and move toward the edge of the bed, laughing when the arm grabs you and pulls you back.    
  
“Sans! I’m hungryyyy,” you whined, “and I smell french toast!”   
  
He chuckled as he let you go, getting up and stretching before following you into the kitchen, where Papyrus was leaning against the counter next to the stove. There was a bright smile on his face as he presented the two of you with plates, heaping with glorified egg and cinnamon bread doused in maple syrup.    
  
“To celebrate happiness!” Papyrus said, voice quiet but enthusiastic as not to wake the fully grown Boss, who was sleeping on the counter next to the microwave, or to disturb GlaDOS, who was  watching Boss sleep from on top of the microwave with interest.    
  
As you watched everything going on in your quaint apartment, you just hoped it could stay this way a little longer.    
  
Finding out Toby’s secrets could wait. 


	40. Become Your Legacy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two new roommates? Papy having a crush?!

After a delicious french toast breakfast, you curiously googled “toby fox” on your phone. As results loaded, all it said was that he was famous in the gaming community and that he lived comfortably in  _ Washington D.C. _ Your suspicions were correct--he was monitored by the government. 

Sighing, you leaned back on the couch, arm draped around Sans. He too was looking at his phone, but you noticed he wasn’t scrolling over anything, just staring at the lock screen with a goofy grin on his face. 

“You okay?” You pulled him close to you with your arm, laughing.    
  
“yeah, just talkin’ to chara.”    
  
“About?”   
  
“you.” He looked over at you and pecked your cheek.    
  
You laughed and shoved him playfully, standing up to put your plates away. Suddenly you heard a knock at your door. Plates still in hand, you walked over and opened it.    
  
“Hope you’re still offering a place to stay,” said Doctor Theodore Evans, MD, who was standing right in front of you with a duffel bag, donned in wrinkled blue scrubs, lab coat draped over his shoulder.    
  
“Is that all of your stuff?” You asked incredulously.    
  
“Yeah...Jerry didn’t let me move in with much, so I didn’t leave with much.”    
  
You groaned and ushered him in, motioning for him to sit on the couch as you put the plates in the kitchen sink.    
  
“For one, You need to do the paperwork to become a roommate. Two, you need to pick a roommate to room with. We don’t have any other bedrooms.” You set the ground rules, and he graciously accepted them, letting his eyes scan everyone in the room.    
  
Theodore’s eyes scanned everyone in the room, and by Sans death glare, it was obvious rooming with you was off limits-- and obviously, Sans did better on his own. You were the exception.    
  
“I’ll room with Papyrus.” Theodore concluded, dropping his bags as Sans walked up to him and placed a bony hand upon the man’s shoulder.

Although Sans seemed placated by that answer, he still took Theodore outside. You presumed it was the whole “hurt my brother and you’re dead” routine that he gave  _ everyone  _ who became anywhere close to “friends” with his bro. 

You looked over at Papyrus, who had come out of his room in the middle of the whole ordeal, leaving him standing in the hallway, jaw agape and sparkles seeming to shimmer near his sockets. Needless to say, he was buzzing with happiness.    
  
“I can’t believe I get a roommate!” He whispered excitedly, carrying Theodore’s dropped bags into his room, mumbling ecstatically to himself about bunk beds and how it’d be like an “elongated sleepover”. 

Your eyes lingered on the tall skeletons door a moment before darting back to the living-room as Sans and Theodore stepped back inside. Papyrus rushed from the room and stood before the tired doctor. 

“HELLO NEW HUMAN! I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS! ALLOW ME TO SHOW YOU OUR ROOM!”    
  
You and Sans chuckled as you followed the two to Papyrus’s room. When you got there, you gasped.    
  
In less than a minute, Papryus had managed to reorganize and reposition  _ all of his things _ so that they only took up half of the living space. It was  _ flawless.  _ Sans’ mouth hung open in shock, as did yours.    
  
You knew Papyrus was fast, but this was crazy!    
  
“bro, you never use gravity magic to clean!” Sans gasped. You realized the source of Sans surprise was completely different than yours.    
  
“I HAD TO MAKE IT FAST!” Papyrus shrugged.   
  
Theodore flopped onto the floor next to his duffle bags in the middle of his “half”. Chuckling, you and Sans and went back out to the living-room, leaving the boys to bond.    
  
“well this has certainly been an eventful day,” Sans remarked, yawning and laying his head on your lap as you both settled back onto the couch. Looking down, you started to gently run your hand along Sans’s skull. You traced the miniscule chips and porousness that had to be a result of age. Leaning toward him, you pressed your lips to his forhead.    
  
“I love you Sans,” you whispered.    
  
“and i love you bea” Sans eye-sockets closed and he drifted to sleep, you following soon after, taking a midmorning nap.    
___   
  
Papyrus sat in his racecar bed and looked over at Theodore with concern. The man looked exhausted and worse for wear, like a worn teddy bear. Speaking of which, Papyrus almost felt inclined to nickname the man Teddy.   
  
Lowering his voice for courtesy, he decided to approach the man, taking a moment to kneel beside him.    
  
“Do you need anything? There’s an air mattress in the closet if you want a bed.” Papyrus walked to the closet as Theodore cracked his eyes open, mumbling a “yes please”. 

Nodding, Papyrus got out the air mattress and lazily used magic to air it up with the air pump.    
  
“I would’ve never guessed you’d use magic so frivolously” Theodore murmured, sitting up, “having played Undertale…”    
  
“I didn’t want my new roommate to be uncomfortable; besides, I have work soon!” Papyrus interrupted, smiling and stretching. He pulled at the collar of his work shirt and gestured toward his name tag--”THE GREAT PAPYRUS” etched onto it in the ever-marvelous font. 

Theodore looked Papyrus up and down and smirked.    
  
“You’ll never abandon that scarf, will you?” he laughed, seeing Papyrus with the red scarf wrapped around his waist.    
  
“Of course not, Doctor Evans--Er...Teddy! I’ll let you in on a little secret. It was a gift from my dad.” Papyrus smiled warmly and patted the doctor on the shoulder before exiting the room.    
  
“SEE YOU ROOMMATE!” Papyrus called as he left, unplugging the air pump and throwing some blankets and pillows on the air mattress.    
  
Theodore curled up into the blankets, a flustered smile on his face from the nickname, and proceeded to sleep.    
  
This was already a million times better than living with Jerry. 

__

You realized that Papyrus was at work upon waking up, so you squirmed out of Sans’ arms to check on Theodore. When you walked in, you were surprised to see him bundled up in two thick blankets, laying on a nice air mattress, resting his head on a car shaped pillow. You knew Papyrus would be a wonderful host-- you’d have to bring him along when you all went bed shopping for the poor doctor.   
  
A quick glance at his things showed that he didn’t have work that night, so you figured you could wake him up for dinner when that time rolled around, which was in about 3 hours. 

You decided to bide your time reading some of the material your boss sent you on communicating with “troubled” youth in person. Personally, the “troubled” terminology had you slightly peeved, but you elected to ignore it, because the advice the pamphlets gave wasn’t half bad. You knew most of how to communicate already though--it was kind of common sense. No “you statements” and stuff like that. First year psychology major stuff. 

As you were skimming through the material, you felt a pair of hands massaging your shoulders and you leaned back on your bean-bag chair to look up at Sans, who had a transparent blue skin over his bones. You leaned into his touch and he kissed your forehead.    
  
“how you doing?” he asked.   
  
“I’m fine babe...just reading. I’ll be a working woman again soon. Speaking of, I haven’t seen you working either…” You gasped in realization.    
  
“Has Papyrus been picking up the slack for my coma and your absences?! No wonder he’s been so tired!”   
  
Sans face turned blue and you had your answer. Tearing up, you handed him your cell phone.    
  
“Call your jobs. Check and see if you even qualify to come back!” You shoved him into your room and locked the door.    
  
You heard him laugh, something about Toriel and the other monsters picking up some expenses, but then you heard the beeps of fingers tapping numbers. Relieved, you walked to the kitchen to get a cup of tea.    
  
That skeleton was going to be the death of you.   
  
As you sipped your tea, you checked the time. It was about 5:00pm (wow you read so many pamphlets and packets and books), so you figured you should wake the new roommate. Two cups of tea in hand, you walked down the hallway and rapped on the door a couple of times. Theodore answered with messy hair and a lopsided grin, gratefully accepting the tea. As you were walking back out toward the living-room, a loud bang erupted from your room. Ushering Theodore into the living-room, you grabbed your bedroom key and unlocked the door, swinging it open and freezing at the sight of Sans.    
  
His left eye was flashing yellow and blue flames and he was crying. You noticed a hole burned into the floor slightly. Not enough for downstairs to complain, but enough for you to worry about replacing the carpet.    
  
“Sans, what’s wrong?!” You ran to him and held him close as the flame around his sockets died down. Wet tears stained your shirt.    
  
“they’re so hurt, bea...they’re so sad...i can’t…they’re changing...” he was choking on his words, and he looked at you in desperation, as if his 1HP was being put to the limit.    
  
“they’re changing...they’re soul...it hurts so fucking bad.” He lifted his shirt and you gasped.    
  
The brown splotches weren’t brown anymore.   
  
They were a vibrant red-orange. Mostly Red. And it was coalescing outside of his soul, forming very meticulously a vibrant red-orange heart.    
  
And around it… slowly formed a young child with vibrant red eyes, their pale face covered in tear-stains, their dark lashes damp, and their button nose running, brown hair mussed. Sans gasped and held a hand over his chest both in pain and in shock.   
  
With more care than you ever thought you’d give them, two words fell from your lips.    
  
“Hello, Chara.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We've slowly been seeing the black color of Chara's possession fade, their body sludge-like if they decided to appear to Bea and Sans (which has been twice). They've slowly been changing from possessed to back to normal, due to the overwhelming patience of Sans soul and the pure love of Bea's soul. They were able to be SAVED. 
> 
> Also i think Papyrus likes Theodore ;)


	41. Promise me a Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You feed a has-been-demon, and fill Teddy in on the happenings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit I've been gone for so long!!! Sorry guys!!! But I'm back and I hope at least one of you comes back plz I'm sorrryyyyy

Chara stood staring at you and Sans for a while before gross sobs shook their small frame. Their already rosy cheeks flared with emotion, so you hugged the child close, looking over at Sans who was clutching his chest and gasping, collapsed on the floor. You reached for him, as did Chara. You both wrapped him in an embrace. 

“Are you okay?!” You whimpered, kissing all over his face.   
  
“i’ll be fine. kid must be hungry...or thirsty.” He tried to stand on wobbly legs.   
  
Instead of standing, you picked him up and lay him on top of your bed.    
  
“I’m gonna have to tell Theodore.” You whispered. Sans just nodded and you took Charas hand and took them out your room and into the kitchen.

When Theodore, who was trying to make tea, turned to see who was in the entryway, his entire body froze at the sight of Chara. He looked quizzically from you to the child and threw up his hands.

As you explained the whole story, you were shocked to notice that Theodore didn't immediately believe you. However, as you got into the logistics of everything, he began to understand. He was even typing informational questions angrily into Google as you got to the bits about Toby Fox.

“I know it’s a lot to take in, but Chara… Chara has nowhere else to go, and I’m not sure telling Toriel, Asgore, and Flowey, and filling in Frisk about them is the best idea right now.” You mused.    
  
Theodore nodded and Chara clung to your side, nuzzling your side with the top of their head. You ruffled their hair with a hand and walked toward the stove. The teapot was whistling.

“Hey Chara, would you like some tea?” You asked, pouring three glasses.

They nodded, the tears in their eyes lifting some. They clung to you like a static-charged sock. They seemed afraid to speak, not knowing if their fresh vocal chords could manage any sound. But you were learning sign language for Sans’ sake, so you managed to communicate that way for a while, Theodore having taken his tea to his room so you and Chara could talk on private. You were at the stove, making grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for them, and they sat on the counter behind you, slightly swinging their legs. 

Their raspy, light voice startled you.

“Who's room will I sleep in?” They asked.

You had assumed yours. They could just share the bed with you. That way Sans wouldn't have to worry about rooming with a used-to-be homicidal maniac.

“I was assuming mine..unless you want the couch…”

They shook their head. Signing a quick okay before going back to swinging their legs and tapping their heels against the cupboards.

You put the finished food on plates and into bowls and turned the stove off, turning to face Chara before giving them their food.

“You're safe here. I can promise you a place here until you feel ready to go home.”

They nodded, eyes starting to glisten. They brought their hand to their chin and then out and down. _Thank you_.

“It's no problem.” You assured.

You handed them their sandwich and bit your lip apprehensively. “I hope it's not too much for your stomach.”

It was too late. Chara bit into it quickly, chewed, and swallowed. If it was, they made no signs showing it. They downed it quickly and hugged you afterwards. They poured the soup in a mug and sipped it. As if it were tea. You couldn't blame them, you were the same way, and currently doing the same.

“Do you feel queasy?” You asked, kneeling down.

They shook their head again, their bangs swinging and their red eyes looking into yours. Honesty brewed in their pupils.

“Good. Let's go check on Sans.”

Chara clung to your shirt, tugging on it nervously as you opened your bedroom door. Sans way laying back and humming a slow ballad. It made you smile.

“Hey lazybones, how ya feelin'?” You asked, walking over to touch his cheekbones.

He cracked open an eye and his grin widened.

“i'm feeling better. is that grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner?”

You extended the plate and bowl out to him, and he took it gratefully and started to chow.

“mm so what’re we gon’ do with the kid?” Sans asked, vowels muffled by chewing.

“Gonna let em sleep in here till they're ready to go home and face everyone.” You put a hand on Chara's head and held them close, pressing their head into you and they nuzzled into your side again.

Sans nodded and smirked, looking Chara in the eyes.

“don't go killing my girlfriend, ya hear?” he joked.

Chara snorted and nodded, smiling.

“Thank you,” they whispered, “for forgiving me.”

Sans just ruffled their hair and patted their head.

“no skin off my back, kid.” He smiled.

“You already used that one before!” You laughed, and Chara did too, and you all sat on your bed, either eating or sipping tomato soup.

Soon it was nearing midnight, and everyone was pretty sleepy or exhausted. Sans shuffled off to his room, but not before lacing his digits through your hair and kissing you.

“Ewwww!”

Both you and Sans chuckled and he left you alone with Chara.

“So how about we get some rest, huh?”

You asked.

They nodded and you placed them in your bed, tucking them on before crawling in as well. They cuddled into you.

“Story?” Their voice pleaded.

And so you started to tell a simple fairy tale, deciding to go with Snow White.

They fell asleep before you could even name any of the seven dwarves. And you drifted off soon after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, it's not much, I hope it was worth the wait at least a little bit though??? There's more to come but it'll likely have to wait until I get a functioning laptop/computer. 
> 
> Next plot point is gonna have a lot to do with the major Toby Fox stuff!!!


	42. House of (Making) Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You, Chara, Sans, and Papyrus all have some bonding time.

Sniffling. In the absence of dreams, that was the one thing that began to jostle you from your slumber. A quiet, childlike sniffling that seemed oddly close to your ear. Small arms were wrapped around you and a hot, shaky breath moved the hair on the nape of your neck on the side of you that was closest to the mattress.

You opened your eyes to see Chara cuddled very close to you, their head buried in your neck, above your shoulders, and koala-clinging to you as if their life depended on it.

“Hey” you rasped, and they brought their head back to look up at you, their crimson eyes glistening with tears. So they were awake. “Nightmare?”

They nodded, and you sat up, positioning them so they were on your lap, and you lazily dragged your fingers through their tear stained, sweat-matted brown hair. Humming, you slowly shifted off of the bed and stood up, careful not to drop Chara as you tiptoed your way to the kitchen. It was about 8am, Papyrus and Theodore were likely already at work, and Sans was probably still asleep. You set them down on the counter and they wiped at their tear-stained rosy cheeks.

“Do you want some eggs and bacon for breakfast?” You asked, to which you were answered by a curt nod and a loud growl of their stomach. A resounding, soundless ‘yes’.

You ruffled the hair on their head and turned to the fridge to gather the necessary ingredients, and took your time mixing what you needed between the trek from the fridge to the stove. The eggs hissed as they hit the sizzling pan on the stove, and the bacon sputtered and popped alongside.

Chara giggled as you snapped your hand back in pain when a bit of bacon grease splattered onto your knuckles.

“Always gonna be a bit sadistic, aren’t ya kid?”

You were met with another fit of breathy, light giggles.

As you served the two of you your food and moved to the coffee table, the aura surrounding Chara suddenly became morose. You could almost feel it.

“What’s going on?” You asked, turning to them as they poked at the remaining eggs with their fork.

“I miss Frisk…” they whispered, finally taking a listless tear at a piece of bacon, immediately contorting their face in disgust.

“Is this turkey bacon?” they stuck out their tongue.

You laughed.

“That’s what I get for letting Sans and Papyrus do the shopping!”

You let the giddy moment pass before turning your attention back to the matter at hand.

“Do you think you’re ready to see them?” You asked.

They shook their head and sighed, red eyes dull.

“Not yet...but can I call them on your phone?” They asked.

Nodding, you handed Chara your phone and they walked back into your room for privacy--leaving you with all of their leftover bacon.

\-----

Chara walked back out with life in their eyes and a grin on their face.

“I take it that went well?”

They just nodded and ran to you, patting you on the sides as if to both get your attention and to be affectionate.

“They really do wanna see me! They like me!!!” Chara was over the moon, “and they wanna know if they can come over next weekend? I’ll be ready then!”

You just giggled and agreed.

“Frisk is never here enough. I’ll find any excuse to have them over!”

\----

Chara was in your room coloring when Sans finally came out of his room. You were in the living room re-watching some old kids show from your childhood that Chara suggested while they were still in the room. You felt him wrap his arms around you and breathe over the top of your hair, causing a few wisps of it to fall over your face. You tilted your head back to look up at him, noting for the millionth time that his lower mandible wasn’t hollow.

“How’re you holding up?” You asked, lifting an arm to run your fingers over the top of his skull. Tiredly, you silently marveled at how much his skull felt like smooth drywall. You liked it.

“i’m doing better now that i’ve rested. any new occurrences?”

You nodded, yawning, “Frisk is coming over next thursday. Maybe we can all wrap our heads around the Chara thing better.”  
Sans nodded and hummed as you moved your head to look at the TV screen again, Sans letting his jaw wrest on your head, the air (how?) that flowed through his nasal cavity blowing across the top of your head, tickling your scalp.

“what even is this?”

You hadn’t really been paying attention, but when you focused your eyes, you saw a very oddly animated guinea pig, duck, and turtle, all trying to assemble a “toy” airship. Wonder Pets. You decided to let it play, and soon enough you and Sans were engrossed, so much so that you didn’t hear Chara walk in when you were belting out the song they sang while trying to save baby animals.

“WHAT’S GONNA WORK?”

“teamwork!”

“What’s gonna work?!”

“teamwork!”

Chara burst into a fit of giggles when you were finished, causing you to turn beet red while Sans’ cheekbones ended up dusted with a light blue haze.

Their rosy cheeks stood out against their pale face, and as they looked through their shaggy bangs, mirth glittering in their red orbs.

“I wish I could’ve gotten that on camera!” They chortled.

You and Sans just looked at each other in embarrassment. You took initiative and threw a pillow at them.

They threw it back, missing by a landslide and hitting Sans in the ribs.

“oh you’re gonna get it.”

And a pillow fight ensued, lasting well into midday. That’s when Papyrus walked right into a pillow, which, after many hours of misuse, exploded into white down feathers.

“WOWIE WHAT A DISPLAY.” He exclaimed, spitting a few stray feathers from between his teeth.

He smirked as he used his magic to bring a pillow from him and Theodore’s room to join the fight. It didn’t last much longer, considering the original three of you were already exhausted, but that seemed fine for Papyrus, who seemed tired after his half-day at work.

“SO…” he huffed, “WHAT WOULD YOU ALL LIKE FOR LUNCH?”

You, Sans, and Chara looked at eachother and started to giggle.

“I want your spaghetti! I haven’t had it yet!” Chara spoke up, for the first time to Papyrus.

Papyrus shakily smiled and said okay before stepping into the kitchen. You halted for a second.

You whispered to Sans and Chara.

“I remember Papyrus saying he remembered bits and pieces of the resets while I was locked away in Sans room. Do you think…” you trailed off when you saw Chara’s horrified expression, guilt eating away at their soul.

“I… I just want him to trust me...I know I used to trick him into being my friend before k-k-k…” they couldn’t finish the sentence, but you understood completely. After a long day at work, Papyrus is just having a bad day, and he probably is terrified.

“Should I go…?” You asked Sans. Who gave a sad look to Chara, and nodded, taking them into your room to talk, considering they hadn’t had any sort of heart to heart yet like they had with you.

You stepped into the kitchen archway as Papyrus was just staring into the cupboard with the pans in it.

“Papyrus?”

He looked over at you, his eyes sunken in more than usual.

“After the day I’ve had at work Bea, I just…other humans, they seem so incapable of good...I don’t know what’s come over me, but I just… I want to trust them. Everything in me screams that they’re good now...but I…” He choked back a sob, which almost broke you. You rushed to him in a hug.

“Papyrus, forgiving and forgetting are two different things. You don’t have to trust them immediately. I know I still have reservations about them, as does Sans, and we’re working past them the best we can. We had fun in the pillow fight for example, but that doesn’t mean you have to be okay. It’s okay to not be okay.”

Papyrus pulled away from you with a large grin, although tears were still streaming from his sockets and lessening into a trickle.

“Thank you Bea. I’m going to start on that spaghetti now.”

You nodded and gave him a final hug before heading back to the living room, where Sans and Chara were back and smiling while playing Mario Kart.

Moving on is a process, but you were all going to get through this, together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully updates will be more frequent now that I have a two in one tablet thing i can type and stuff with :)


End file.
